■ 



m»i 



-1 



THE 



STUDENT-PREACHER 



MEMOIR WITH DISCOURSES 



DANIEL JOHNSON GLAZIER. 



BY 

ROBERT TURNBULL. 



BOSTON: 

Or O U L D AND LINCOLN, 

59 "WASHINGTON 3TEEET. 

NEW YORK: SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEMAN, 

115 NASSAU S J? BEET. 

1 8 % A . 






£* 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, 
By ROBERT TURNBULL, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 



^change t ^ _- 



Geo. C. Hand & Avery, Printers, 3 Comhill, Boston. 



CONTENTS 



i. 

MEMOIR OF ME. GLAZIER. 

II. 

DISCOURSE ON THE POWER OF THE CROSS. 

"But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto 
the world." — Gal. vi. 14. 

HI. 

DISCOURSE ON THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 
"For great is your reward in heaven." — Matt. v. 12. 

IV. 

DISCOURSE ON THE NEW CREATURE. 
" If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." — 2 Cor. v. 17. 

V. 

DISCOURSE ON REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 
" For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. — Eph. ii. 10. 



THE 



STUDENT-PREACHER. 



It will be difficult for -the writer of the 
following brief memoir to convey, to strangers, 
an adequate idea of the charm of appearance, 
character and manner of his young friend and 
brother, whose sudden decease has awakened 
so deep a sympathy among all who knew him. 
He was tenderly loved by his intimate friends. 
Perhaps they were too blind to his faults, 
and dwelt too exclusively upon his virtues. 
But the more they knew him, the more they 
loved him. Even his imperfections gave a 
deeper interest to his high qualities. They 
were just of that character to awaken the 
profoundest sympathy. In fact, they were the 
ebullitions and exaggerations of a quick and 
generous nature. His death, too, has thrown 
1 



D THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

his faults into shadow, and brought into prom- 
inent view all his noble and beautiful traits. 
Of generous disposition, and lofty aims ; pure 
in life, and dignified in deportment; with a 
fine form, and gleaming eye ; a voice of music, 
whose tones thrilled the heart; a vigorous in- 
tellect highly cultivated, a sensibility strong 
and delicate, and a heart all aglow with the 
love of nature and of God, he was preparing 
for the holy work of the Christian ministry. 
And just as he was ready for the noble ser- 
vice, — -just as he had accepted a call to the 
pastoral care of a church, which had conceived 
for him the highest esteem and affection, he 
was cut down; like some noble tree, with 
its fresh, green leaves and golden fruit in the 
very heart of the garden. But the spot where 
he fell is hallowed. The very air is fragrant 
with his memory. It seems a duty to per- 
petuate his influence. Brief as was his life, 
it was not in vain. Unspeakable good has 
already come of it. His friends have gained 
a deeper sense of the value of religion, a 
nearer view of " the better land." Some of 
them have found it the means of a new spirit- 
ual life. The few sermons he preached pro- 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 7 

duced a deep impression. They are full of 
the spirit of Christ, and may yet be the means 
of greater and more permanent usefulness. 
In this hope some of them are given to the 
public, accompanied by the following sketches 
and memorials. 

Daniel Johnson. Glazier was born on the 
11th of April, 1828, in "Wellington, a quiet 
village, hidden among the rocky hills of Con- 
necticut. His parents were greatly esteemed 
among their neighbors and friends, for their 
good sense, piety, and integrity of character. 
They were members of the Baptist church 
in "Wellington, and adorned their profession 
by " a well-ordered life." Both of them died 
in early life. His mother was a woman of 
fine sensibilities, and impressed something of 
her own beautiful image upon her children. 
She was intelligent and amiable, and tenderly 
attached to her family and friends, and to the 
church of Christ. His father must have pos- 
sessed more than ordinary force of character. 
His death, which occurred suddenly, after a 
very brief illness, when he was only thirty- two 
years of age, was yet peculiarly triumphant. 



8 THE student-preacher: 

" Of his relatives," says a brief obituary no- 
tice of him, which appeared at the time, in 
the Christian Secretary, "he took a most 
tender farewell. His weeping wife and little 
children seemed to lay near his heart. To 
them he gave the counsels of a dying husband 
and father, and cheerfully committed them to 
the care and protection of that God in whom 
he had trusted. He frequently spoke of the 
glorious views which he had of the heavenly 
world. To the inquiries of his friends in re- 
gard to the state of his mind from time to 
time, he would reply, ' My prospects are bright 
and clear. My hope is in the Saviour, and my 
trust is in God. I have nothing to fear, and 
nothing to lament, only that I have not lived 
more devotedly to the service of my Re- 
deemer.' Just before his death, and after a 
season of great bodily distress, on being asked 
how it was with him, he replied, in a low 
voice, ' I have got all over it now. I am 
in the happy land ! '" 

The death of his mother, who survived her 
husband about fifteen years, was equally calm 
and holy. Thus, our young friend, amid all 
the bereavements and trials of life, from which, 



MEMOIR OP DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 9 

at times, lie suffered so keenly, like Cowper, 
in similar circumstances, could "boast" him- 
self 

" The son of parents passed into the skies." 

His grandfather, Daniel Glazier, Esq., assumed 
the care of the orphan children. They could 
have found no better guardian, no better home. 
Daniel, who was warmly attached to this ex- 
cellent and venerable man, ever spoke of him 
in terms of affectionate endearment. His at- 
tachment was fully reciprocated ; and as his 
grandfather perceived in him indications of 
energy and talent, he resolved to spare no 
expense in his education. He was a sensitive, 
warm hearted boy, with some obvious faults, 
like most other -boys of his age, and especially 
a quick and somewhat violent temper. Com- 
pletely superior to everything like unkindness, 
his sensitive organization exposed him to sud- 
den and lively emotions. But he was always 
honest and open hearted; and, in fact, prided 
himself, even when a boy, in doing everything 
frankly and fairly. On one occasion he had 
felt himself aggrieved by one of his young 
friends ; but would not inflict the deserved 
1* 



10 THE student-preacher: 

chastisement till a relative of the boy ap- 
peared, in whose presence he administered 
one or two hearty kicks. In subsequent life 
he had a habit of " speaking his mind " a 
little too freely, sometimes, for the comfort of 
those " given to shams." He deeply regretted 
his too great sensitiveness of temper, and 
never failed, when he found he had wounded 
the feelings of a friend, to take the earliest 
opportunity of making some ample explana- 
tion or generous apology. Mellowed and sub- 
dued by religion, this quickness of temper 
had nearly disappeared, or rather, had as- 
sumed its proper place, as a repellant of every 
thing sordid and wrong. We mention it now, 
because it reveals his natural bent. His con- 
stitutional temperament was what is some- 
times styled " nervous," as it possessed great 
delicacy and vigor, not unmixed with irrita- 
bility. He belonged, in fact, to the race of 
the poets, having something of the refinement, 
sensibility, aspiration, and inspiration of that 
irratabile genus. Hence, also, his occasional 
melancholy, his profound dissatisfaction with 
himself, his passion for the ideal, his longing 
for perfection. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 11 

Still, as a boy, he was vivacious and fond 
of fun, generally sportive, and at times, hila- 
rious. A vein of quiet humor ran through his 
conversation, giving it, at times, an inexpres- 
sible charm. A little shy with strangers, and 
apparently grave beyond his years, he was 
marvellously free and agreeable with his in- 
timate friends. His lively talk and hearty 
laugh indicated the natural vigor and freshness 
of his 'feelings. As a boy, he was remarkably 
fine looking, with the lively aspect and ruddy 
glow- of health. In after years he complained 
of frequent indisposition. His nervous sys- 
tem, at times, seemed to act with too great 
violence. Always handsome, he looked a lit- 
tle languid and careworn, and complained of 
depression of spirits. His friends hoped this 
would pass off in due time, and, indeed, it was 
yielding rapidly to the mild influence of re- 
ligion. Yet some who know him felt that he 
was scarcely fit for earth. Manly as he was 
in all his feelings, and anxious to battle with 
the stern realities of life, they feel now, that 
his true home lay far away in some higher 
sphere. 

But a finer, manlier little fellow never went 



12 tiie student-preacher: 

to school. He made good progress in his 
studies, and after gaining all the instruction 
he could in his native village, he was sent to 
Hartford, to gain experience in his uncle's 
store. It was a question whether he should 
devote himself to business, or to some pro- 
fessional employment. At any rate, it was 
thought best he should gain some knowledge 
of practical affairs, and fit himself for future 
usefulness. This, indeed, was not his true 
sphere ; still it was a benefit to him in many 
respects. In due time, however, his grand- 
father, who hoped that some day Daniel might 
be truly converted, and devote himself to the 
work of the Christian ministry, gave him per- 
mission to enter the Connecticut Literary In- 
stitution, at Suffield, where he secured, in a 
high degree, the esteem of his teachers, by 
the excellence of his deportment, and the 
vigorous prosecution of his studies. His fel- 
low students were warmly attached to him. 
They loved his frank and generous manner, 
his high spirit, and noble aims. Well does the 
writer remember that bright summer anniver- 
sary, when Daniel, with a group of as inter- 
esting young men as ever graduated from such 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 13 

an institution; spoke his oration, with a dig- 
nity, energy, and enthusiasm, which took his 
friends by surprise. His fine bearing, bright 
countenance and beaming eye, lent a peculiar 
fascination to his address, which he spoke with 
a precision, freedom and power quite unusual 
in one so young. The impression which he 
made upon his intimate associates may be 
learned from the following letter, written by 
a congenial friend and fellow student, now 
engaged in the active business of life. 

"Hartford, April 20, 1855. 

• "My Dear Pastor: — For such I love to 
regard you, although it is my lot to listen less 
frequently to you, than to teachings from 
strangers' lips. 

" I did not count the cost when I gave you 
my promise to furnish you with some remin- 
iscences of our dear friend Glazier. My feel- 
ings control my thoughts, and associations of 
sorrow shroud every memory. It is not for 
him that I am sad. For him, whose spirit, 
touched by divine love, panting beneath the 
load of earthly infirmity, ' ached for its heaven- 
ly home ) ' for him, ransomed from the cap- 



14 THE student-preacher: 

tivity to evil, whose chains we still bear; for 
him ; who knows now what we can only dimly 
imagine, how fathomless the joy of sinless and 
immortal life ; I am glad for him. 

"But for myself, without him, I am sad. 
Men go veiled through life. We know the 
names of those we meet in daily traffic; but 
the men we know not. He was one of whom 
I could say, he knows me ; and when I think, 
that while I may press my way any whither 
duty calls in life, my eyes shall seek him in 
vain; when I reflect, that his delicate sympa- 
thy must be remembered among my lost trea- 
sures, I feel as a stranger, and poor. It is a 
blessed thing, that whatever of pure friend- 
ship we are permitted to enjoy on earth, is 
never lost; it becomes immortal when the ob- 
jects of it become clothed with immortality. 
It is subject to no earthly vicissitude : neither 
change nor diminution. Herein is the mem- 
ory's most sweet ministry. 



"I first became acquainted with Daniel at 
Suffield. Then the 'mantle of his destiny' 
did not seem to have settled upon him. He 
spoke of trade as the occupation of his future. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 15 

But suddenly, to the apprehension of his asso- 
ciates, his mind was aroused to a new activity ; 
a loftier ambition inspired him. He com- 
menced a course of assiduous practice, which 
rapidly developed the graces of a rare elo- 
cutionary power. I seem to hear now the 
tones of his manly voice, as, alone in his room, 
he yielded himself, with ever increasing ardor, 
to his favorite study. He possessed rare 
power of imitation; and it was frequently 
brought into requisition for the amusement 
of his fellows. He would personify what is 
termed ' Yankee character' in a manner rarely 
surpassed. It was said of him, that he would 
attain eminence as an actor, were he to seek 
it. His fellow-students commonly regarded his 
future as that of a lawyer ; but there were, I 
think, secret whisperings within his own breast 
of a higher calling; and there were those of 
his friends who even then considered the pul- 
pit his destined sphere of labor. 

" One occasion is particularly mentioned, 
when, assuming the character of the Preacher, 
he pronounced a sermon, (by whom written it 
is not now recollected,) and so successfully 
was the part sustained, that a friend said of 



16 THE student-preacher: 

him, 'He will do that in earnest some day, 
which he now has done thoughtlessly.' 

" As it is true, that the orator, like the 
poet, ' nascitur, non fit J it is not strange that 
he came, very soon, to be regarded as 'the 
best speaker at the Institution,' — a reputa- 
tion which he sustained at college. For pe- 
culiar reasons I watched his progress in this 
respect with great satisfaction, and a feeling 
akin to fraternal pride. How great my hopes 
were for him, it is needless to say; — they 
are withered now, for they were earthly ! 
His tongue has learned a loftier service ! 

" With the facts incident to his conversion, 
and his subsequent determination to enter the 
ministry, you are, doubtless, better acquainted 
than myself. My recollections of this period 
of his history are full of interest to me, al- 
though they are of a nature which would, per- 
haps, render them uninteresting to those less 
intimately acquainted with Daniel than it was 
my happiness to be. 

"What appeared to others to be his char- 
acteristics, I cannot tell ; to me he was a sin- 
cere and truthful friend; an agreeable com- 
panion, of keen wit and inexhaustible humor; 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 17 

intelligent and refined. He abhorred shams 
and those miserable ' expediences/ which so 
dwarf manly development. He cherished lofty 
ideals. He never permitted that devil l public 
conscience/ so called, to guide his action. As 
a Christian, he acknowledged no formula, seek- 
ing to compel unquestioning assent ; but most 
earnestly did he seek instruction from the 
1 Great Teacher/ in the truths which his word 
was designed to convey. 

" I loved him, chiefly, for his quick and deli- 
cate sympathy with that l inner life/ which is 
our best and truest life; and for this, his 
rare gift, now lost, it is a privilege to be 
sad. 

u I am conscious that I have very imper- 
fectly fulfilled my promise to you ; but I offer 
what is written, simply as a manifestation of 
my desire to accede to your request. 
"Yours, sincerely, 

"H. E. ROBINS. 
"Rev. Robt. Turnbull, D.D." 

After leaving Suffield, our young friend be- 
came a student in Brown University, and 
passed honorably through the usual course of 
2 



18 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

studies in that Institution. His attainments 
in classical and mathematical studies were 
respectable, though not particularly distin- 
guished. His mind was powerfully attracted 
to English literature, rhetoric, mental and 
moral philosophy. By his assiduity, good con- 
duct, and success in his studies, he gained the 
respect and affection of the professors and 
president, who have, in various ways, testified 
their approbation of his character and worth. 
He attracted, especially, the attention of Pro- 
fessor Gammell, at that, time the teacher of 
rhetoric, and now that of history and political 
economy. This amiable and accomplished 
gentleman saw in him the germs of eminent 
success as a public speaker, and took a lively 
interest in his success. Our readers, therefore, 
will peruse with interest the following admira- 
ble letter from his pen. 

" Providence, April 27, 1855. 
" My Dear Sir : — I take great pleasure in 
communicating to you such recollections and 
impressions as I still retain of our young 
friend, Mr. Daniel Johnson Glazier, whose re- 
cent death has brought sorrow to so large a 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 19 

circle of friends. My acquaintance with him, 
I ought, however, to state, was limited to the 
last three years of his residence in college, 
and was withal restricted very nearly to the 
relations of instructor and pupil, which we 
then sustained to each other. Since his grad- 
uation — the period most interesting, perhaps, 
in his whole personal history — I have met 
him but seldom, and only for very brief in- 
tervals. 

"Mr. Glazier graduated at Brown Univer- 
sity, with the class of 1851; while in college, 
was under my instruction in rhetoric, general 
history, and other kindred studies. From 
some circumstances connected with his per- 
sonal history at the time, "I contracted and 
continued with him an acquaintance, somewhat 
more familiar and intimate than usually arises 
between undergraduates and officers of in- 
struction. There were at this time qualities 
in his character and mind that awakened in 
me an unusual interest. His person was of 
medium stature, of good proportions, and his 
manners, though among strangers he may have 
appeared retiring and shy, among his familiar 
acquaintances, were open, frank, and engaging. 



20 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

They were the natural and unequivocal ex- 
pression of an independent and manly spirit, 
which was free from meanness and distrust, 
and delighted in what is noble and generous. 
During a large part of his college residence, 
he was afflicted with a chronic determination 
of blood to the brain, which often became so 
violent and depressing, as to require the en- 
tire suspension of his studies, and almost to 
destroy his hope of being able to prosecute 
his education. But the manner in which he 
struggled with this most dispiriting and en- 
ervating malady, evinced the fortitude and en- 
ergy which belonged to his nature. It was his 
persevering aspiration to secure for himself a 
liberal intellectual culture, that alone con- 
ducted him to the end of his collegiate course, 
in circumstances which would have dismayed 
most other young men of his age. He, how- 
ever, steadily pursued the end he had in view, 
and graduated with honorable rank, and with 
an intellectual training which promised to se- 
cure for him wide usefulness, and early rep- 
utation. 

" Of the native power of his mind, I had no 
means of forming an estimate, save such as 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 21 

were presented in the college exercises, which 
he performed under my direction. These al- 
ways gave evidence of a mind liberally, and, 
as it seemed to me, harmoniously endowed, 
and, withal, filled with high and worthy aspi- 
rations. He had no exclusive bias in any one 
direction, and was wholly free from contempt 
for particular departments of knowledge, for 
which he had no special aptitude himself. He 
appreciated the various branches of learning 
which he was required to pursue, as means of 
a complete intellectual culture, though for cer- 
tain studies he had a much stronger relish 
than for others. The malady with which he 
was afflicted often rendered him wholly unable 
to read a book, or even to fix his attention 
upon any subject of thought; yet the manner 
in which he acquitted himself when free from 
such visitations, indicated that he was fully 
equal to the successful prosecution of any — 
even the most difficult — of the studies em- 
braced in the collegiate course. For some of 
them his aptitude was quite unusual; his suc- 
cess in their prosecution was of a high order. 
Among the subjects of study to which he gave 
his attention while in college, his preferences 
2* 



22 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

were, unquestionably, for literature rather than 
for exact science, and his strongest tastes 
were for moral rather than for physical truth. 
" As a student, the highest success which he 
achieved, was undoubtedly to be found in his 
public exercises of speaking and writing. A 
natural taste, cultivated by select and careful 
English reading; an ear attuned to harmony 
and propriety of expression; a voice of rich 
and varied tones, and a manner, dignified, sim- 
ple, and attractive ; all combined to qualify 
him for eminent success in wielding that no- 
blest form of human power, — the power of 
the public speaker. It was in this class of 
efforts, — so intimately connected with the use- 
fulness of a Christian minister, — that I an- 
ticipated for him a degree of excellence, far 
above what is now usually attained, or even 
aspired to in the pulpit. While in the prose- 
cution of other studies, he was always earnest 
and diligent ; in this he appeared to be more 
than usually ambitious. His thoughts thus pre- 
sented were just and correct, as well as gen- 
erous and inspiring; and his exercises in col- 
lege declamation never failed to awaken the 
interest of his academic auditory. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 23 

" Of his religious principles and spirit at 
this period of his life, I know little or noth- 
ing. I think he had not then become con- 
nected with any church, and did not class him- 
self with religious men. He was, however, 
as I recollect observing, a regular attendant 
at public worship, as well as at the morning 
and evening exercises of the college chapel; 
and in his daily life, was always careful and 
exemplary. A high sense of honor character- 
ized all his intercourse with others, and shone 
forth, as the occasion required, in every ex- 
hibition of his character which I had an op- 
portunity to witness. His life, thus passing 
amid the seclusion and quiet of college studies, 
indicated a moral nature composed of fine 
elements, harmoniously combined, and gave to 
those who knew him well, high promise of a 
progressive culture and growth, and of a ca- 
reer of usefulness and honor. This promise, 
I think, had grown stronger and stronger with 
each year of his subsequent course, and was 
made especially sure by the decided religious 
faith, in which his mind became established 
soon after his departure from college. But 
of these later years of his life, I must leave 



24 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

those to write who were associated with him 
in his daily pursuits, and shared with him the 
hopes and plans which he had formed for the 
future. It is only as he appeared to me in 
the restricted and private relations of an 
undergraduate scholar, that I recall his amiable 
character, and the force of his interesting 
mind; it is only the impressions I then re- 
ceived, that I have attempted to communicate 
to you, who knew him at a later period, and 
in quite different relations. I regret that these 
impressions are not more adequate to his en- 
tire character; yet, such as they are, they 
link his name in my own mind, with the hopes 
and sentiments which an instructor most de- 
lights to associate with the memory of a pupil. 
In his early and sudden death, many of these 
hopes, lately so widely indulged in by all who 
knew and loved him, have been sadly blighted. 
His life ended with the period of promise : 
it had only reached, but had not entered, 
the period of actual performance. Its bud- 
ding and blossoming were beautiful; but ere 
the season of fruit had come, it has been cut 
off forever, by the early frosts of death. 

" With sincere sympathy for all those whose 



MEM 



OIK OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 25 



hopes have been blighted, by the premature 
departure of this estimable young man, 
" I remain, my dear sir, 

" Yery respectfully and truly yours, 

"W. GAMMELL. 
"Kev. Dr. Turnbull." 

A few of Mr. Glazier's letters, written in all 
the confidence of friendship, and intended for 
no eyes but those to whom they were ad- 
dressed, have come into our hands. He had 
great aversion to this species of composition; 
and imagined that his letters were " miserably " 
written. Nevertheless, unstudied as they are, 
they possess some excellent qualities, and 
give a pleasing insight into his character and 
ways. His estimate of college life, his dili- 
gence in the prosecution of his studies, and 
his high aspirations, appear in the following, 
written while at Brown University. They 
gave some discovery, also, of his moral feel- 
ings, and his occasional, perhaps frequent, con- 
victions upon the great subject of the soul's 
immortal destiny. 



26 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

" Brown University, Nov. 26, 1848. 

"My Dear Grandparents: — Judging from 
the number of letters I have received from 
home this term that you are anxious to hear 
from me, I have seated myself for the pur- 
pose of gratifying that desire. I suppose 
that allowance should be made for you on 
the score of age and the infirmities thereof. 
I can conceive that it makes a great differ- 
ence in respect to one's inclination to write. 
Time, which changes all things, in its noiseless 
flight, has covered your heads with the 
whitened locks of age, and decrepitude is 
fastening itself upon you. Hence it is that 
you write no oftener. I confess that my 
letters have not been too frequent, but you 
must make some allowance for me also. My 
health has been as good as usual thus far 
this term. I have had no sickness of any 
account; although I do not feel so strong and 
active as I could wish. Time passes off 
very rapidly — a pretty good sign that my 
time is occupied. My studies are not as 
hard as at the beginning of the term. But 
still they demand much time. I sometimes 
get tired out, and wish I was through with 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 27 

them. But my better genius cheers me 
on, tells me that nothing is worth having 
that is not worth working for, and that there 
is no excellence without great labor. Yet 
there is much pleasure in literary labor. We 
learn something daily; some new truth is 
discovered, some new field of thought is 
opened; and more than all, the angel Hope 
points us to the future where we shall reap 
our reward. If we never reach the temple 
of fame, education will smooth our pathway 
through manhood, cheer and comfort us in 
old age, and if rightly directed, help us to 
lay hold on eternal life. In comparison 
with the blessings and pleasures derived 
from education, untold wealth is utterly pal- 
try. 

" I like college life. It is a miniature 
world. Students are a peculiar set of 
beings. Some people think that they are 
lazy, roughish fellows. Doubtless some of 
them are lazy, and some of them are rough- 
ish; but this is by no means the case with 
all. We are separated from the world, and 
live by ourselves. We have common inter- 
ests, are bound together by a common brother- 



28 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

hood. We are all striving for the same great 
end; we have our pleasures in common, and 
envy not those who pass their time in the 
gay society of the world. 

" I have had an opportunity lately of hear- 
ing several distinguished men speak this 
term. Mr. Gough lectured here a few weeks 
since in his usual interesting manner. I 
also listened for over two hours, a fortnight 
ago, to a speech from Daniel Webster. His 
subject was the Constitution of the United 
States. More than 1700 persons were pres- 
ent. He is rightly called " the godlike." 
He is the most noble appearing man I ever 
saw, and when he speaks, there are no sleepy 
hearers. 

" The term will close in about three 
weeks, but as I have decided to take that 
school, I shall not be at home till next 
spring. I should like to be at home Thanks- 
giving, but cannot. Please give my love to 
all friends, and write when it is convenient. 
"Your affectionate grandson, 

" D. J. GLAZIER" 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 29 

" Willixgton, Sunday Eye, April 15, 1849. 
" Esteemed Cousin and Friend : — For 
some hour or more I baYe been holding com- 
munion with myself. Scenes in my past life, 
and those with whom I haYe been connected, 
haYe been passing before me. I am some- 
what inclined to reflection. As I take but 
little interest in the common topics of 
conYersation here, I rely almost entirely 
upon good books, and thought for profit and 
pleasure. Besides, Sabbath eYening is a time 
eminently adapted for contemplation and rev- 
ery. Its peaceful quiet creates a corres- 
ponding feeling in the breast of eYery one. 
who is not entirely absorbed in business, in 
the pleasures or the Yanities of the world. 
All selfish and sordid thoughts are banished,, 
all low and trifling objects are forgotten. 
The spiritual and immortal part of our na- 
ture is awakened. The mind dwells upon 
the glories of the celestial world, and the 
boundless goodness of the great author of 
our existence. It o'erleaps the narrow 
boundaries of time, and loses itself in the 
limitless expanse of eternity. Then, too, 
memory and affection throw around us their 
3 



30 the student-preacher: 

potent charm, call up the cherished forms of 
friends now living, and of those who after 
l . life's fitful fever ' sleep in the peaceful grave. 
How strong is memory ! How lasting is 
affection ! 

" But I digress. While I was musing on 
the past, my thoughts very naturally recur- 
red to you. I say naturally, because I can 
ever cherish you as a friend. Though when 
I lived in your family I was wild and way- 
ward, I had a heart susceptible to such kind- 
ness as I always received from you. Though 
by nature passionate and 'high-strung,' I can 
never forget a friend. Nor is it generally 
the case that the warmest heart beats under 
a cool and placid exterior. I have known 
men who never showed anger and always 
wore a smiling countenance. People praised 
them for the evenness of their temper, loved 
them for their gentleness, while in the end 
they proved the veriest hypocrites and black- 
est villains. There are of course honorable 
exceptions ; but when I see a man who is 
excessively pleasant and agreeable, and as- 
sents to every opinion I advance, I suspect 
that man. No ; give me the man who is 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. ol 

quick to feel an injury and who dares resent 
it. Such a person will feel a kindness just 
as quickly. The kind interest which you and 
your husband have manifested in my welfare 
has not escaped my attention, and has not 
failed to deepen my friendship for you. 

"Perhaps you will inquire ' why have you 
not written before ? ' A very natural ques- 
tion certainly. Last Thanksgiving day I sat 
clown and wrote you a long letter, spent all 
the forenoon on it, and laid it in my desk 
intending to send it the next day. But I 
received a letter from home from which I 
learned that you were very sick, therefore I 
did not send it. The week after, I went out 
to teach school for a few weeks, and when 
I returned to college I was somewhat be- 
hind my class, and consequently my time was 
employed in my studies. I had a very 
pleasant school, indeed, and I was proud of 
my scholars. I taught the highest English 
branches and Latin; and it was called the 
model school. You, perhaps, smile at the 
thought of my appearance in the school room, 
and wonder if I kept cool! But I can 
assure you my manner was very dignified, 



32 THE student-preacher: 

and that one glance of my old squint eye 
was enough to make the boldest rogue trem- 
ble I* Moreover, I lived on the fat of the 
land, &c. In fine, I passed a very pleasant 
time, but the most pleasant part of it after 
all (not an unnatural feeling for a poor stu- 
dent) was the 'tin' that rattled in my pocket. 
But I had not more than fairly got into 
town before it was all gone. If any young 
man has got a surplus of money, let him 
go to Brown University and he will not be 
troubled with it long. But though it takes 
away our cash, I trust it gives us that which 
will be of more importance to us. I am 
not one of that class who bow down to a 
god of gold, nor do I believe that man's 
whole energies should be employed in heap- 
ing up wealth. It has no intrinsic value in 
itself, and is valuable only for the good that 
can be obtained by it. Besides, a mind well 
disciplined and stored with information drawn 



* Mr. Glazier here facetiously refers to a characteristic expres- 
sion of his eye. Though remarkably fine looking he had a pe- 
culiar, half squinting, side glance of the eyes, expressive some- 
times of one feeling, and sometimes of another. It -was roguish, 
indignant, and affectionate by turns. All his friends will remem- 
ber it. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. oo 

from the history of the past, has a greater 
source of happiness, and one, too, of which 
neither the fraud nor treachery of the world 
can deprive him. It is his own so long as 
life and reason shall last. Such a man, too, 
takes a wider range of thought, and better 
comprehends the true end of man's exist- 
ence. 

u The present all absorbing subject appears 
to be ' the gold mines of California f nothing 
is heard of in the streets but the 'placers,' 
the ' El-Dorado,' and the 'golden sand-dust.' 
The brains of old and young seem to be 
turned with the idea, and thousands eagerly 
leave home and friends and all the endear- 
ments of domestic life, crowd into a filthy 
ship, dare the dangers of a perilous sea, 
starvation, the murderous knife of the prowl- 
ing robber, and death itself, in the doubtful 
expectation of collecting a heap of yellow 
dust. I have had no interest in this excite- 
ment. History informs me that the gold 
fever is no new disease. Thousands of the 
youth and nobility of Spain lost their lives 
in searching for this precious metal in the 
3* 



34 the student-preacher: 

very same region where so many of our 
countrymen have gone. 

" My studies the present year are much 
harder than those of the last. Students at 
Brown have very little time for disturbing 

the peace of society as they do at . 

No young man can continue here whose con- 
duct is not gentlemanly, and who is not of 
industrious and scholarlike habits. Provi- 
dence, too, is a fine place to live in, with 
good society and good local advantages. 
Perhaps students are a somewhat favored 
class, but certainly they are respected more 
in Providence than in any other place I know 
of. I enjoy college life much; time flies 
swiftly and pleasantly by. Though somewhat 
secluded from the world, we have pleasures 
of a superior kind. Mind comes in contact 
with mind, the treasures of Literature and 
Science are within our reach, and the con- 
sciousness of preparing ourselves to act well 
our part in the great drama of life, lightens 
our labor and cheers us on. 

" I have been at home about a fortnight. 
I eat much, sleep long, and work a little. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 85 

The friends in "W. are all well. Eather a 
dull place for business or amusement, but 
excellent to rusticate in. I don't know what 
may happen, but it is my opinion that I 
shan't spend six years in study, in order to 
dig these stones, or sell six cents worth of 
tea, and take pay in paper rags. 

* . *; 4k * * * * 

" I was twenty-one years old last Thurs- 
day — am a man, and for the rest of my 
life mean to act like a man. I shall soon 
be cast upon the great ocean of life to 
guide my own course over its conflicting el- 
ements. Whether my bark will glide safely 
over its waters into the haven of success, 
or be wrecked on the rocks of temptation, 
or shattered by the blasts of adversity, is 
for the future to determine. 

" I intend to return by the way of Hart- 
ford and to make you a visit. You must 
pardon the mechanical execution of this let- 
ter, and believe me 

Your friend and cousin, 

D. J. GLAZIER. 



36 THE student-preacher: 

"Brown University, Oct. 3, 1850. 

" My Dear Friend and Coz. : — I have a 
few leisure moments this evening, and know 
not how to employ them better than in writing 
a few lines to one of my earliest and best 
friends. I am aware, that in the changes con- 
tinually going on in the world of matter and 
of mind, individuals may also change. But 
there are incidents in the life of almost 
every one which have given a cast to their char- 
acter; and there are memories, too, that clus- 
ter around us, amid all the changes through 
which we pass. In many things I trust I am 
changed since the days of my boyhood. But 
in one thing I am not. I still look back to 
the many little acts of kindness from those I 
lived with, and often are thoughts of you pre- 
sent to my mind. It was so to-night, and, act- 
ing upon their suggestion, I took pen and pa- 
per, and began this epistle. 

" Of course I must first speak of Ego, that 
is, myself. Well, I am as well in health as 
usual ; (a little tautology ; but never mind,) and 
though I have some trouble with the head- 
ache, manage to do justice to my studies. I 
have enough to do, I assure you; and, for the 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 37 

last four weeks, I never worked harder in my 
life. You may be disposed to question whether 
study is hard work. If you don't believe it, 
just try it. Just take up intellectual philoso- 
phy, lectures on history and German, and get 
a long lesson in each every day; and mind 
you get it thoroughly. Write an essay once 
a week, on some subject connected with men- 
tal philosophy, and be sure to have it logical; 
and once in two weeks on an historical sub- 
ject, and adorn it with the flowers of rhetoric ; 
and a speech once in four weeks, (one that 
will 'take'). I say, do all this, and if you 
don't call it work, I will say, you are made 
of sterner stuff than I am. All that I have 
enumerated I am required to do. Hard though 
it is, mind you, I do not complain. 'What 
thy head finds to do, do it with thy might,' 
is my motto. (< Hands ' it is, I believe, in the 
Bible ; but head is more applicable to my 
case just now.) I look beyond, and take 
courage. But enough of this. 

" I am now, you know, on my last year at 
college ; and, as I look back, I can hardly be- 
lieve that I have spent three years here. But 
so it is. There is something solemn in the 



38 THE student-preacher: 

thought. How have I improved them? Am 
I better prepared to act my part in the 
world's theatre ? In short, am I better pre- 
pared to live as an intelligent being; and, 
more than all, as a being responsible to an 
Almighty Creator? I could hope I am j and 
yet I am too sensible of a disregard, or, ra- 
ther, not a sufficient regard, for my most im- 
portant interests. Surrounded, as I am, by 
the glittering enticements of a worldly am- 
bition, I too much neglect the still, small voice 
of the monitor within. There are times, 
though, when I think, how insignificant are all 
worldly honors, in comparison with the hon- 
ors that await the pious soul hereafter. I 
think much upon religious . topics ; but the 
great trouble is, I cannot act ! If I could sud- 
denly be changed into a Christian, I would 
give worlds were they mine. But that I be- 
lieve to be impossible. Each one of us has 
his own part of the work to do, which none 
else can do. 

"But I did not intend to wander into such 
reflections, and I will change the subject." 

****** 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 89 

Mr, G-lazicr graduated; as stated by Pro- 
fessor Gammell, with the class of 1851, a class 
of unusual distinction and promise. We hap- 
pened to be present on the occasion, and, as 
at Suffield a few years before, had the pleas- 
ure of listening to his interesting address. 
Though not the first scholar, or perhaps at 
that time, the most finished writer of his class, 
he was considered the best speaker. He 
spoke on that occasion with a noble dignity 
and enthusiasm ; and when he closed, the house 
rang with prolonged applause. Grave and 
learned men, where we were sitting, clapped 
their hands with delight, and, in whispered 
conversation, predicted his future eminence. 
Ah, little did we think, that those flashing 
eyes were so soon to be quenched in death, 
and that attractive form to be laid in the 
grave ! 

A year or two after, Daniel came to the 
city of Hartford, and entered the office of the 
Honorable Thomas H. Perkins, for the pur- 
pose of studying law. He was resolved to 
profit by his opportunities, and, if possible, 
attain distinction in this noble profession ; yet 
the study was not in all respects congenial; 



40 the student-preacher: 

for his eager, poetical spirit was perpetually 
wandering beyond the dominion of forms and 
precedents. The great principles of law? 
founded, as it is, on the idea of right, attracted 
his admiration; but the details of the office, 
and the dry study of cases, oppressed his 
mind. Still he was resolved to do his best 
in the sphere he had chosen, and fit himself 
for a course of honor and usefulness. High 
tempered and ambitious, and not yet subdued 
by the Spirit of God, he indulged in the lofti- 
est expectations, and was determined, if pos- 
sible, to realize them. But God was pre- 
paring him for another sphere. He became 
dissatisfied and restless. The high cravings 
of his immortal nature were not met. He 
had not found his place, or his work. Nay, 
more, he had not found his God. Though 
piously educated, and of good moral charac- 
ter, he had not made "heart work" of re- 
ligion. Christianity, as a deeper life of the 
soul, was yet unknown to him. He acknowl- 
edged its high claims ; but did not feel its 
transforming power. To penitence and prayer, 
divine fellowship and worship, he was an ut- 
ter stranger. But of all this he was only 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 41 

partially conscious. It had not greatly occu- 
pied his attention. He had been busy with 
his studies, and now he was fully occupied 
with his new plans for life. He would work 
hard, acquire distinction, win the applause of 
men, and occupy some post of honor and influ- 
ence in society. This engrossed his mind, this 
filled his vision. 

But he gradually came to the knowledge 
of the fact, that in all this he was supremely 
selfish. By glimpses and flashes, so to speak, 
the startling truth broke in upon his mind. 
The impression, however, at first was feeble 
and imperfect. It was only sufficient to pro- 
duce a sense of want, an uneasiness and hun- 
ger of the spirit. 

On the Sabbath his attention was turned to 
the "one thing needful," — the claims of God 
and the soul. For a time, however^ he tried 
to persuade himself, that he was not only 
moral, but religious — in his way. At any 
rate, he did not feel the need of pardoning 
mercy, and regenerating grace. He had grad- 
ually acquired the notion, that Christ was lit- 
tle more than a sacred teacher, and that all 
the soul needed for immortality was, to follow 
4 



42 the student-preacher: 

the dictates of natural integrity and honor, 
somewhat elevated by the genius and teach- 
ings of Christianity. The Gospel, as a re- 
medial or redemptive system, was pressed up- 
on his attention ; but he would not receive it, 
he could not receive it; and, although edu- 
cated among Christians and Baptists, the idea 
of being " converted " and " baptized " was 
peculiarly obnoxious to him. This, at least, 
was the state of his mind at times. Perhaps, 
in his deeper thoughts, he believed differently 
from what he imagined, or expressed. "No," 
said he, with severity, on one occasion, " you 
will never see me join a Baptist church ; " 
though, a few days after, he repented of the 
spirit in which he said this, because he thought 
it might have wounded the feelings of a dear 
friend and relative, to whom it was spoken, 
and to whom he made a handsome apology. 
He never, indeed, attached undue importance 
to mere forms, either of belief or of action; 
but his heart seemed to revolt at the very idea 
of a divine and supernatural regeneration, or 
of acting upon the supposition that such a 
thing was possible, at least to him. He al- 
lowed, that if one could be changed thus, it 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 43 

would certainly be desirable ; but as to its 
realization, he deemed it altogether improbable. 

He had a singular aversion, moreover, to 
theological dogmas. He could never quite 
master the distinctions of the schools. These, 
however, were not pressed upon his atten- 
tion. He was urged to think for himself, to 
sound the depths of his own consciousness, 
to acknowledge the mystery of being, and 
above all, of life, whether natural or spirit- 
ual; to realize, if possible, the holiness of God, 
the sinfulness of man, and especially his own 
sinfulness ; to study the Bible, particularly 
the teachings of Christ and his apostles, to 
pray for light, and, in dependence upon Divine 
aid, to endeavor to " draw nigh to God." 

At this time, a most interesting work of 
grace was enjoyed in this city. Many young 
persons were "born into the kingdom of God," 
who, in groups of three, four, or half a dozen, 
solemnly and joyfully, "went down" with their 
Savior into the baptismal waters. On one 
occasion of this kind, he was moved to tears. 
He said a he had never seen so heavenly a 
sight." He began with greater thoroughness 
to examine the Scriptures, and held frequent 



44 the student-preacher: 

conversations with his pastor upon the great 
question of the soul's eternal destiny; or 
rather, perceiving his deepening thoughtful- 
ness, his pastor sought opportunities of en- 
gaging his attention with reference to this 
great interest. He endeavored to address 
his reason and his conscience, and soon found 
that the Spirit of God was moving powerfully 
upon his heart. Mr. G. imagined that he did 
not feel much upon the subject, because 
there was no agitation, no fear, no great 
excitement of any kind. But it was obvi- 
ous, that his whole nature was penetrated with 
an invisible power, and that his intellect and 
feelings were becoming absorbed in the mighty 
inquiry. Other friends sought opportunities 
of conversing with him, and some that loved 
him tenderly offered prayer night and day on 
his behalf. A severe and protracted struggle 
ensued. He could not understand the sacrifice 
and atonement of Christ ; he could not feel or 
acknowledge its necessity. He began, how- 
ever, to see that his soul, alien from the divine 
life, must be " regenerated unto God ; " for 
he was made aware, from the depths of his 
consciousness, that he was living for self, and 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 45 

not for God ; for time, and not for eternity. 
At last, while acknowledging the profound 
mystery of our Saviour's nature and work, he 
saw enough both of himself and of Christ to 
rely, with the sweetest confidence, upon the 
grace of God. He was reconciled; he loved. 
He had found the centre of his being, the end 
of his life. The mystery of the incarnation, 
" God manifest in the flesh," revealed itself 
to his believing, adoring spirit; and there 
he rested with a calm and holy love. 

We ought to state here, that he was much 
aided in his inquiries, by " Erskine on the In- 
ternal Evidence of Christianity," which his 
pastor had put into his hands. His principal 
study, indeed, was the New Testament. But 
this interesting disquisition, the work of a 
Scottish Advocate, who brought to the . study 
of the christian system, great simplicity and 
force of mind, assisted him to appreciate the 
teachings of the Scriptures. It showed him, 
what his own consciousness confirmed, that the 
atonement of Christ, while exalting our con- 
ceptions of the divine character, is admirably 
adapted to the human soul, meeting all its 
wants, and bringing to bear upon it the most 
4* 



46 the student-preacher: 

powerful agency for its transformation. Mr. 
Glazier was hence strongly attracted to the 
Pauline Epistles, and began, like all other 
truly regenerated persons, to renounce his own 
righteousness, and glory only in the cross of 
Christ. This element in his conversion ran 
through the whole of his subsequent experi- 
ence, colored, in fact, all his thinking, con- 
trolled all his actions in the domain of re- 
ligion. 

He was now ready, therefore, to sacrifice 
the world, to follow Christ, to be " baptized 
into his death," to commemorate his dying 
love, in the sacramental supper, to cast in his 
lot with the disciples of our Lord, and follow 
the teachings of the Divine Spirit. Joyfully 
he was buried with Christ in baptism, and, 
though humbly and modestly, he went on his 
way rejoicing. He was not unwilling to bear a 
humble testimony on the subject before others, 
especially if by this means any good could be 
accomplished; but his deepest pleasure was in 
secret to read the Scriptures, to meditate upon 
the love of Christ, and invoke the influences 
of the Holy Spirit. 

Soon, however, another struggle commenced. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 47 

He must preach the G-ospel. Of this he felt 
a strange, secret conviction, which he tried, 
without success, to overcome. But in order 
to preach the Gospel, he must abandon some 
of his cherished schemes ; and, as he supposed, 
become poor, perhaps despised; break off 
some dear connections, and lead an obscure, 
laborious life. At last he yielded to the sa- 
cred call, and meekly bowed to the yoke of 
Christ, in the matter of the Christian ministry. 
His soul was at peace ; his career as a ser- 
vant of God opened clear and pleasant before 
him. Faithful and generous brethren were 
ready to aid him; the church approved his 
choice, and sent him to " the School of the 
Prophets," at Newton Centre, where, for nearly 
three years, he prepared himself for the sa- 
cred work. He obtained from the First Bap- 
tist Church, in Hartford, a license to preach, 
of which he availed himself occasionally, under 
the direction of the Professors at Newton, 
greatly to the edification of those who heard 
him. 

Mr. Glazier was delighted with Newton, and 
the course of studies prosecuted there. He 
never once regretted having gone thither. 



48 THE student-preacher: 

The place, the society, the studies — all were 
congenial. His health, indeed, as at college, 
suffered somewhat, and, in certain moods, he 
longed to be out in the world, engaged in the 
great battle of life. But he attached great 
importance to an adequate preparation for 
the work of the ministry, and took great 
pleasure in the study of the Scriptures. He 
was especially delighted with the exegetical 
exercises, under the care of Dr. Hackett. He 
bowed, with the profoundest reverence, to the 
authority of God's word, and always felt at 
home in its free investigation. Here every 
thing seemed to be just what it ought to be, 
just what the soul of man needed. In the 
study of dogmatic theology, somehow he was 
less at home. He greatly revered his pre- 
ceptors, first the excellent and able Dr. Pat- 
tison, and on his removal to Waterville col- 
lege, the learned and amiable Dr. Ripley ; 
but systematic theology, which he was eager 
to master, gave rise to frequent questionings, 
which he could not always solve. But, sweetly 
confiding in Christ, and thoroughly believing 
the Bible, he was wont to confess his ignor- 
ance, and leave profounder mysteries where 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 49 

they belong, among " the deep things of God." 
Entirely independent in his investigations, and 
naturally orderly in his modes of thinking, he 
would not suffer an opinion to be forced upon 
him ; and hence was in the habit of leaving 
many points for more thorough and extended 
examination. What Go* taught, he implicitly 
received; what man taught, he sometimes 
doubted, and occasionally rejected. It is not 
to be inferred, however, from these remarks, 
that he was inclined to reject any of the great 
truths, which, in the estimation of regenerated 
men every where, make up the body of evan- 
gelical doctrine. He thoroughly believed in 
the regeneration and the redemption of the 
soul, through the atoning sacrifice of the 
Son of God; but he held all theological be- 
liefs in a free and generous manner, such as 
was connatural to his vigorous, independent 
mind. He loved to dwell upon the perfection 
of Jesus Christ, as human and yet divine. 
He could say with Bowring, 

" In the cross of Christ I glory, 

Towering o'er the wrecks of time. 
All the light of sacred story 

Gathers round its head sublime." 






50 the student-preacher: 

He felt, in his deepest consciousness, the need 
of pardon and renovation, and exulted in the 
contemplation of that amazing plan of divine 
wisdom, by which " mercy and truth meet to- 
gether, righteousness and peace kiss each 
other." 

But some extracts^from his letters, written 
while at Newton, will confirm and illustrate 
these statements. They will also serve to 
throw light upon other features of his char- 
acter. 

The following addressed to his cousin, 
and written in one of his playful moods, so 
pleasant to his old friends, but alas ! how 
evanescent, gives some insight into his feel- 
ings on first entering the Institution. 

" Theo. Inst., Newton Centre, Sept 28, 1852. 

My Dear Friend: — It is now just three 
weeks since I bade you good bye, and no 
doubt you think it is high time you heard 
from me, and perhaps you have begun to 
censure me in your thoughts, at least, for 
my delay. * * * * * * 
• I may, however, say in palliation of my 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 51 

delay, that I have begun no less than three 
letters to you before to-day, but something 
each time happened to prevent the consum- 
mation of my plans. So that you see " the 
spirit has been willing but the flesh weak." 
To-day I have a leisure time, and part of 
it I will give to you. The reason of my hav- 
ing a leisure day is this. Last Friday night, 
Tutor H., our Instructor in Hebrew, took 
unto himself a wife, like a sensible man as 
he is. Now, in such a case, it is but fair 
to suppose that he will have but little in- 
clination, for a few days, to hear any other 
sounds than those of connubial endearment. 
The harsh sounds of Hebrew consonants 
would grate upon his ears. So he is ab- 
senting himself from us for a few days, hav- 
ing sent to our class that famous " excuse " 
said to have been made several years ago, 
though under somewhat different circumstan- 
ces, viz : that " he had married a wife, and 
therefore could'nt come " — to recitation. 
And as anxious as we may be to progress in 
knowledge, not one of* our class can so far 
forget that he is a man u subject to like 
passions " as Tutor H. is, as to be at all 



52 THE student-preacher: 

unwilling to receive the excuse. It is not 
at all improbable that some of us may, at a 
future period, need a similar indulgence. But 
enough of this. 

"I arrived here safely on the evening of 
the day I left Hartford, with feelings sad- 
dened by the thoughts of friends whom I had 
left behind me. I did not know that I was 
so much attached to Hartford, till I had left 
it. I found a good room had been reserved 
for me, through the kindness of a friend of 
mine here, who knew I was coming, and the 
next day I was settled and quite at home. 
The Institution furnishes a bed and bedding, 
so I had no trouble on that score. The rest 
of the furniture I bought from the person 
who occupied the room before me, consist- 
ing of all things necessary to make a stu- 
dent's room his home. If you could look in 
upon me, I think you would say I was quite 
"cozy." For the first week or ten days, 
though, I was rather "blue" and verily be- 
lieve I had a touch of a disease very like 
to " homesickness." *But this has all worn 
off, and I was never happier in my life than 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 53 

now, or at least was never more pleasantly 
situated. 

" I have a first rate room on the front 
side of the building, commanding as beautiful 
a prospect as I ever saw. I have a first 
rate chum, the best one I ever had, and a 
fellow I like better than any one else of 
the male kind in the world, that is to say, I 
room with myself! It is very pleasant to 
me to room alone. There are here several 
of my college friends and class-mates, with 
whom I pass some pleasant hours, and whose 
company is a source of great pleasure to me. 
The Institution is most delightfully situated,* 
on the summit of a high hill, and the scene- 
ry around it is certainly, in the highest 
sense of the term, grand. I wish you could 
witness one of our sunsets behind those blue 
old hills. The air up here is very pure and 
exhilirating, so much so as to give a very 
strong appetite to all the students. My 
health has rapidly improved since I have 
been here, and I feel that I grow strong 
every day. We are only twenty minutes 
ride from Boston, a portion of which can 
be seen from my windows. The students,. 
5 



54 THE student-preacher: 

many of them walk in Saturdays and spend 
the day there. 

" So far as I have been able to judge, I 
like the Professors very well. My principal 
study at present is the Hebrew language. 
It is very difficult at first, but it is said all 
difficulties will vanish after a study of five 
or six weeks. I, of course, shall try to 
master them as soon as possible. 

"I feel conscious that I am in the path of 
duty, and act from such motives as the Bible 
approves, and this consciousness is a source 
of much happiness to me. I duly seek the 
illumination of the good Spirit, that it may 
lead me into truth and keep me in the right 
way: and here in this quiet retreat, though 
worldly thoughts will sometimes intrude, I 
find my religious feelings and convictions be- 
coming stronger and more settled. I do not 
allow myself to think much of the future ; 
but I pray that I may rightly improve the 
present, and the future will take care of it- 
self. #.**.##'** 

"My kind regards to all my friends, and 
keep just as much of my poor love to your- 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 55 

self as is consistent, and bestow the rest on 
the one you think most worthy of it. 
"Yours, most affectionately, 

« D. J. GLAZIER." 

Writing to his grandmother he says : — 

" My studies are of the most interesting char- 
acter, but occupy my time and thoughts very 
fully and severely. I suppose I have never 
at any time done so much work as I do here, 
especially this year. But in all my attempts 
to find out the how and the why of Christian 
doctrines I am continually baffled, and often- 
times am made to feel that man can know 
but little of the infinite God, and that proud 
reason must bend to the simple facts. Doubt- 
less one of the best results of the study of 
theology is to teach one how little he can 
know ; and when I hear a man attempt to 
explain and unfold ' the deep things of God,' 
in a confident and dogmatic manner, I pity 
him. I do not know whether I am ' ortho- 
dox' on all points or not, but one thing is 
certain, I do not feel under obligation to 



56 THE student-preacher: 

take any man's statement of religious doc- 
trine unless he founds it on the Bible. In 
my humble judgment a great many things are 
believed to be true which the Bible does not 
teach. 

" Doctor Pattison has left us to take the 
Presidency of Waterville College. He is an 
excellent man, and in some respects, a good 
teacher of theology. His place is supplied 
for the present by Dr. Ripley, who has been 
connected with the Institution many years." 

To another friend he writes thus : — 

"By mere force of will I have labored all 
day, and it has amounted, I hope, to something, 
laving written a good part of a sermon. 
Most of my sermons, I mean, shall have Christ 
for their subject. He is the sum and sub- 
stance of my theology, and whoever loves 
Him and trusts in Him, ' the same is my 
brother and my sister,' be our other differ- 
ences what they may. His all-comprehend- 
ing compassion cannot be compressed into 
any church creed, nor is it bestowed on any 
exclusive party. They who ' seek Him,' 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 57 

' find ' Him, and to them He is l precious.' 
He has been the theme of my meditations 
to-day. * * * * 

" I am almost overwhelmed when I think 
how much of labor and trial there is before 
me. And yet how weak must be my faith 
in God if I yield to such feelings. I will 
not yield to them; He being my helper, 
through whose strength I can do all things." 

" My studies this term are in the highest 
degree interesting, although they are much 
exacting of strength. They demand much 
earnest and patient thought. I have been 
going over ' the Evidences of Christianity/ 
and am now on the * Attributes of the 
Deity.' I have often had occasion to feel 
the force of that expression 'We see through 
a glass darkly,' and to feel the need of the 
Spirit's illuminiation and assistance in un- 
folding 'the deep things of God.' 

" I have some serious work to do in this 

world, and I pray that I may be furnished 

with all needed strength for the service of 

the great Master. It is a constant warfare 

5* 



58 the sttjdent-preacher: 

this life of ours, and we must be ever vigi- 
lant and active. 

" I think I can say that I grow in love for 
the service of Christ, and am more and more 
weaned from the world. I desire, above all 
other things, to be a good minister of Je- 
sus Christ, and to labor for enduring riches. 

" There are many churches in this neigh- 
borhood and elsewhere destitute of pastors, 
and the number of such is daily increasing. 
Where is the supply to be found? Where 
are the young men that are willing to give 
their lives to the service of Him who so 
loved them as to die for them ? " 



"My health has been unusually good, and 
I have been able to do a good amount of 
study. My studies are of the most absorb- 
ing interest. Before the term began I felt 
somewhat of an aversion to begin them. 
But the great doctrines of our holy religion, 
though demanding severe thought and the 
closest application, have been themes of pro- 
found interest to me, and with each suc- 
ceeding day my interest in them increases. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 59 

Many things there are ' hard to be under- 
stood/ and I have often to bow in humble 
adoration before Him, in respect to many of 
whose truths, it may be truly said, < clouds 
and darkness are round about him;' but in 
all such cases I would ever remember that 
it is sufficient to know that ' righteousness 
and judgment are the habitation of his 
throne.' The study of God's truth is a 
work of the heart no less than of the 
head, and the ' theology of the intellect' 
is worth but little without ' the theology of 
the affections.' 

" I find the study of the term tends to ex- 
alt my views and to wean me from the 
world." 

Of the estimate formed of Mr. Glazier's 
character as a student and candidate for 
the christian ministry, by those most immedi- 
ately connected with him, some idea may be 
formed from the following judicious letter 
from the Rev. Dr. Ripley, " Professor of Sacred 
Rhetoric and Pastoral Duties," and at the 
time of Mr. Glazier's decease, acting Professor 



60 THE student-preacher: 

of Systematic Theology in Newton Theolog- 
ical Institution : 

"Newton, Theo. Inst., April 7, 1855. 
"Rev. Dr. Turnbull: 

" My Dear Brother : — In compliance with 
your request, I address you a few lines re- 
specting our late endeared friend, Mr. D. J. 
Glazier, whose recent death has occasioned so 
much sadness to his instructors and fellow- 
students. I have not much to say; for a 
student's life cannot contain many incidents, 
and his points of character are rather to be 
regarded as germs which are to produce 
fruit in after life. When a student of prom- 
ising character is cut down, we are afflicted 
not so much by the present actual loss as by 
the destruction of hope and the lack of his 
earnest and well-directed efforts in coming 
years. 

" In this respect, the death of Mr. Glazier is 
indeed to be lamented. He bade fair to 
become an earnest and eminently useful 
minister. 

" To aid in the intellectual and religious 
qualification of such a one for ministerial 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 61 

activity is an enviable employment. But 
though early death may seem to have de- 
feated the purpose of such labor, it is a 
gratifying thought that the spirit which we 
hoped would be so useful on earth has been 
really preparing for the service of Christ in 
another sphere, besides swelling the current 
of good influences and producing some inci- 
dental and perhaps unknown good results 
during its brief sojourn on earth. 

"When Mr. Glazier entered the Theologi- 
cal Institution, the class which he joined had 
been prosecuting its studies several weeks. 
He therefore entered under disadvantages ; 
and his rather precarious state of health in- 
creased the fear that he might not be able 
to derive so much benefit from the early part 
of the course as in other circumstances it 
would have given him. He had scarcely be- 
come fairly occupied in study so as to be 
making sensible and gratifying progress, when 
the alarming illness of an aged relative made 
it necessary for him to return home. After 
a very considerable interruption he resumed 
his studies and completed the first year. 
During the second year and the portion of 



62 THE student-preacher: 

the third while he was permitted to be with 
us, he was repeatedly compelled by ill health 
to intermit his studies and be absent from 
the Institution. The nature of his complaints 
induced great dejection of spirits, though he 
was naturally hopeful and ardent. 

" In the studies which he pursued under 
my direction, he manifested clearness and 
vigor of thought and a strong infusion of the 
religious element. He was strikingly candid, 
ingenuous, earnest and persevering. His aim 
was to ascertain the truth, to see it for him- 
self, and to know exactly the kind and 
measure of evidence for it; so that he might 
honestly and fearlessly preach it. From his 
very nature and from his having a practical 
aim, if he spoke at all, he must speak clearly, 
directly and decidedly; he therefore sought 
to regulate his convictions by requisite evi- 
dence, though, as a consequence, he did not 
feel warranted on some points of religious 
doctrine to make up his mind, but kept him- 
self in the attitude of an honest and willing 
inquirer. 

" He remembered, to good purpose, the ef- 
fect which had been wrought on himself, and 



MEMOIR OE DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 63 

which he had observed in others, by the di- 
verse modes of presenting the gospel; and, 
as the result of his own experience in listen- 
ing to various preachers, he preferred to lay 
a subject before men in an intelligent, candid 
address to their judgment and sense of obli- 
gation. He had himself been most swayed 
by the goodness of God ; and considerations 
drawn from that source he was particularly 
desirous to urge. 

"He is taken from us; gone, I doubt not, 
to the clear light of heaven and its perfect 
bliss. 

" I am happy to subscribe myself, 

"Yours, with Christian affection, 

" H. J. RIPLEY." 

Mr. Glazier had an intense love of nature 
and sympathized with it in all its varying 
moods. Pensive and spiritual, he was alive 
to its more hidden as well as its more ob- 
vious influences. This disposition, blending 
with his faith in God, gave a peculiar charm 
to earth, air, and sky, and yet tended to 
lift his mind beyond all material forms. In 
Newton this mood of mind was gratified in 



64 the student-preacher: 

a high degree. The solitude as well as 
the beautiful scenery of that interesting lo- 
cality had a powerful effect upon him. 
There, too, the memory of the past, of the 
loved and the lost, who had gone before 
him into the world of spirits, and the 
thought of his immortal home beyond the 
grave, often mingled in his reveries and 
dreams. 

To these things, many of his letters con- 
tain beautiful and affecting references. 

"Friday Night, Oct. 6, 1854. 
" I have just come in from a long walk, 
somewhat tired in body, but most truly re- 
freshed in soul. The serene beauty of the 
evening tempted me several miles from the 
Institution, and many and precious were 
the thoughts that came to me. An appreci- 
ative friend was with me, and our discourse 
was of things which are not of earth. 
These evening glories how beautiful they are, 
and how rich in heavenly suggestions. How 
far we might have strayed it is impossible 
to conjecture, had I not been drawn to you 
by invisible bonds. And now, rather than 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 65 

talk to you on this sheet, I would much 
prefer to sit with you at that west window, 
that together we might drink into our souls 
the holy and chastening influences of yonder 
glorious moon." 

On another occasion he thus writes: — 

" The elements seem mustering their forces 
for a storm, and as I sit here speaking with 
you, the wind shrieks mournfully and drearily 
through the casement. It ever makes me 
sad; I know not why. I seem to have an 
intimate connection with nature in all her 
moods. When she is glad, I am glad; when 
she is sorrowful, I sorrow too. 

"Many are the fancies I have when the 
wind sighs and moans. Sometimes I seem 
to hear unearthly voices and the rustling of 
angel wings. The spirits of l those, whom 
God hath taken,' are very nigh me, and with 
them I converse. Past scenes rise up before 
me, scenes hallowed in my memory, when one 
and another, and yet another 'folded their 
pale hands so meekly, and so spake with us 
6 



66 the student-preacher: 

on earth no more.' Ah me, how earthly 
am I when there is so much to draw me 
heavenward ! Nearer and still nearer do we 
hourly come to the 'many mansions/ but 
the dust of the world clings heavily to our 
garments. But I must check this strain, for 
it would lead me far away." 

" Theological Inst., Newton Centre, 
Thursday Night, (12 o'clk.) 

"Your slumbers would be disturbed, no 
doubt, were you aware that at this 
midnight hour, I was still up, with all my 
faculties awake, and exulting in the nightly 
rage of the elements without. A most fu- 
rious storm of driving snow is beating down 
upon us, and the winds howl like demons 
from the pit. And yet there is a sublimity 
in it which stirs my soul. I feel the force 
of Byron's oft quoted lines: 

'Ye elements in whose ennobling strife 
I feel myself exalted.' 

I hope you are sleeping soundly, for you do 

not like the howling winds," &c. 

***** 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 67 

" There are moments when the dear de- 
parted ones seem to fold their white wings 
over me, and I feel a gentle drawing of my 
spirit above the ' noise and stir of this dim 
spot which men call earth.' Would that all 
these ' ministering angels ' might more truly 
elevate my soul. I know well, cold reason 
cannot see the proofs of this. But l there are 
more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' " 

While at Newton Mr. Glazier suffered a 
great and painful bereavement in the death 
of his venerable grandfather and guardian. 
The moment he heard of his dangerous ill- 
ness he hastened to Willington, to watch by his 
bedside, and should it be the will of God to 
take the venerable man to himself, to re- 
ceive his last blessing. This mournful satis- 
faction was granted him. But the trial was 
severe, as it seemed to deprive our young 
friend of an earthly home, and made him 
doubly an orphan. It led him, however, to 
cling more closely to his Saviour, and deep- 
ened his resolution to consecrate himself 
wholly to the great work for which he was 



68 THE student-preacher: 

making preparation. His grandfather was a 
Baptist of the old school, honest, enthusias- 
tic and generous, and somewhat quaint and 
fervid in his modes of thought and expres- 
sion. He was distinguished by a certain 
simple heartiness of spirit and frankness of 
manner which had a peculiar charm. He 
was tenderly attached to Daniel, and felt, 
when the latter was converted, and above all 
when he gave himself to the Christian min- 
istry, much as the aged Simeon did when he 
said, " And now Lord lettest thou thy ser- 
vant depart in peace for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation." 

As " the memory of the just is blessed," 
we feel it our duty to do what we can to 
perpetuate the remembrance of this good 
man, and copy therefore the following char- 
acteristic sketch of " Father Glazier," from 
the pen of the Eev. W. C. Walker, pastor 
of the church in Willington : — 

"Died, in Willington, Dec. 28, 1853, Dan- 
iel Glazier, Esq., aged 76. 

" Truly a father in Israel has fallen. For 
more than 40 years he ' held fast his pro- 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 69 

fession without wavering, contending earnest- 
ly for the faith once delivered to the saints.' 
Formerly he was a member of the Baptist 
Church, which held their meetings in the 
northern part of this town, and under the 
pastoral care of the Rev. David Lillibridge. 
But in due time the indications of provi- 
dence seemed to say, ' ye have compassed 
this mountain long enough, turn you ' south- 
ward. And after the conversion of the 
Rev. Mr. Loomis and a part of his church 
to Baptist views, it was evident that the 
time had l fully come ' to plant the Baptist 
standard on Willington Hill, in the centre 
of the town. 

"For several years, father Glazier was 
the only Baptist in this locality. Like 
Daniel of old, he dared to be singular in 
matters respecting ' the law of his God.' 
He prayed and hoped, and even prophesied 
of such an event as the erection of a Bap- 
tist church near his own dwelling, but this 
idea was pronounced wild and chimerical by 
not a few. They were ready to say, ' if 
the Lord would make windows in heaven 
might this thing be.' At one time, in con- 
6* 



70 the student-preacher: 

versation with a neighbor, he was asked 
what he intended to do with such a spot of 
ground, (pointing in the direction in which 
it lay,) he replied, 'I am saving it for a 
Baptist meeting-house.' 

" ' I never want to live any longer than that,' 
was the rejoinder. Nevertheless, father Gla- 
zier was strong in the faith. He was confi- 
dent that if his neighbor lived no longer 
than to witness the completion of such an 
event, his days were indeed few. To his 
great joy the thing was soon realized, and 
his own efforts and donations contributed not 
a little to its accomplishment. He, with some 
fifty others who had been recognized as a 
Baptist church, about a year previous, entered 
this new edifice with encouraging prospects 
— the Lord being with them and adding unto 
them almost daily such as should be saved. 
He lived to see the little band of tens aug- 
mented to hundreds. In the prosperity of 
the church he ever manifested a lively in- 
terest — was ardently attached to his breth- 
ren and sisters, and very anxious they should 
1 hold on to Christ.' He united in prayer 
and effort for the conversion of sinners. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 71 

" The removal of so many of late, by death, 
deeply affected him. He would frequently 
say, ' we have met with a great loss, but I 
rejoice to witness the steadfastness of those 
who remain.' His greatest trials generally 
were with himself. Being a man of thorough 
and active business habits, and of an ardent 
temperament, his besetting sins were world- 
ly-mindedness and hastiness. Of these he 
appeared to be aware and often expressed 
his doubts as to the reality of his hope, on 
account of their predominating influence. He 
would frequently remark, 1 1 don't know but 
I have been deceived, I'm so worldly-minded 
and so unlike Christ.' But though he was 
a man of like passions with other men, and 
sanctified only in part, yet it was evident he 
had the ' root of the matter ' in him. He 
loved prayer, and the social meeting. His 
exhortations, prayers and tears, indicated a 
strong mind, a warm heart, and an intimacy 
with Jesus. 

" His originality, quaintness, and general 
intelligence, especially his knowledge of human 
nature and the Bible, rendered him agreeable 
and instructive in conversation. 



72 the student-preacher: 

"He kept an excellent Baptist tavern, as 
many a minister both old and young can 
testify. He loved especially to entertain 
the fathers in the ministry. Their knowledge 
of the times in which he became a Baptist, 
and their rich experience in divine things af- 
forded him a feast, and always made them 
doubly welcome to his hospitality. 

"He enjoyed an extensive acquaintance, 
and his death will be felt in a large circle. 
He has not lived in vain. The church of 
his earnest efforts, and many prayers, will 
ever cherish a grateful remembrance of him. 

" There is a great vacancy here. His fam- 
ily sustain an irreparable loss which is deeply 
felt by his much loved widow, and the en- 
tire domestic circle. He bore his last pro- 
tracted illness with Christian fortitude, and 
died strong in faith, giving glory to God. 
During the whole period of his confinement, 
his noble bearing, his kind and pious expres- 
sions forcibly reminded bystanders of the 
venerable patriarch, who, when he was a dy- 
ing, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and 
worshipped, leaning upon the top of his 
staff. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 73 

"He died worshiping God — confessing Ms 
sins — praying in the Holy Ghost — trusting 
wholly for divine acceptance in the merits of 
Christ, and blessing God with his whole 
heart. Said he, ' I have had a settlement with 
God, but I came out wonderfully in debt. 
I've had heaps of sins — I've done nothing 
for God; but I do believe that God, for 
Christ's sake, has forgiven me, and I thank 
him for it.' 

'To God I'm reconciled; 
His pardoning voice I hear;' 

u 0, bless the Lord ; I know that my Ee- 
deemer liveth. His blood will cleanse me 
from all sin. I shall soon see my Saviour ! 
Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. He blessed 
his weeping companion, telling her never to 
fear. She had a good hope that God would 
take care of her, and that they should soon 
meet again. 

" He blessed his only son, exhorting him 
to examine his hope, raise the family altar, 
and live for God. He blessed his grand- 
children. Four of these had been thrown 
upon his care at an early age, by the death 



74 THE student-preacher: 

of a beloved son, and were treated with as 
much tenderness as if they had been his 
own children. They feel a loss which lan- 
guage cannot express. He gave one of them 
a collegiate education, and he has already 
entered upon a theological course at Newton, 
and great hopes are entertained of his use- 
fulness. This was a source of great grati- 
fication to his grandfather in his last mo- 
ments. It was an affecting scene when he 
laid his hand upon his head, saying ' Daniel, 
the Lord bless you! Serve the Lord, and 
serve him only? His brother and two sisters 
were the the subjects of his earnest prayer, 
that God would convert them likewise, and 
make them blessings to the world. For the 
dear Church of his love, he had a thousand 
blessings — exhorting one another, and send- 
ing messengers to others to be faithful, and 
serve God better than he had done. He re- 
tained his faculties almost to the last, with 
increasing light aud joy in his soul. 

" He expressed great gratitude that God 
had made him so happy in his last moments 
— much happier than he ever anticipated 
when in health. He found dying grace, and 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 75 

closed his eyes on earthly scenes, with the 
joyful hope of a better country, l even an 
heavenly.' « The fathers, where are they ? ' 
<fec. ' My father ! my father ! the chariots of 
Israel, and the horsemen, thereof.' " 

Most tenderly did Daniel cherish the mem- 
ory of his grandfather. It was with some 
reluctance he returned to his studies at 
New*on. In comparison with the solemn 
and touching scenes through which he had 
recently passed, his daily recitations, for the 
moment, appeared hard and repulsive. But 
this gradually wore off, and though never 
forgetting the past, he began to anticipate 
and prepare for the future. 

"Theo. Inst., Newton Centre, March 19, 1853. 
"Dear Grandmother: — I really feel to 
ask pardon for my long delay in writing. Be- 
sure, however, it has not been owing to any 
forgetfulness of you on my part, but to the 
circumstances in which I am placed. For not 
a day passes but I think of you all, many 
times, and not a night brings me to my pil- 
low without my commending you all to the 



76 the student-preacher: 

care of Him, ' whose tender mercies are over 
all his works.' The remembrance of the sol- 
emn scenes through which we have recently 
passed does but serve to render me more 
thoughtful of my friends in Willington. 
While the departed one who was so long the 
light and the stay of our pleasant home, 
comes in dreams of the day or visions of 
the night to my grateful remembrance, I feel 
my heart drawn still closer to the persons 
of his love, who are left to mourn his loss. 
He sleeps in Jesus, and in no other way 
can I show my gratitude, or my honor of his 
memory, than by living in obedience to his 
last wishes, and cherishing those whom he 
loved on earth. 

" Most tenderly do I sympathize with you 
in what I know must be so painful to your 
feelings — the breaking up of an earthly 
home around which clustered so many attrac- 
tions, and which was the quiet abode of so 
much happiness. 

" Yet it is a great source of comfort to 
think that we are in the hands of a gracious 
Father, l who knoweth what is best for us ' 






MEiMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 77 

and who will not withhold 'any good thing 
from those that love him.' " 

#'♦''''■#•'■•**■' : - ■#' "> 

" Believe me, in much love, 
" Yours truly, 

"D. J. GLAZIEK.'* 

In consequence of imperfect health, the 
loss of relatives, an aversion to be depen- 
dent on others, an acutely sensitive spirit,, 
and, it may be, some slight pecuniary em- 
barrassment, which his friends were entirely 
willing to relieve, if they could do so with 
delicacy and propriety, we find him about 
this time, giving way occasionally to some 
depression of spirits. Still, it is evident he 
was making progress in the divine life, and 
acquiring deeper views of his future destiny* 
The letter that follows is highly character- 
istic. 

" Tiieo. Ixst., Newton Centre, May 20, 185?. 
" Dear Brother H. : — I hopje you have 
not excluded me from your affectionate re- 
gards in consequence of my long silence. 
That would be ' a punishment greater than I 
7 



78 the student-preacher: 

could bear.' I can hardly realize that so 
long a time has elapsed since I was in Hart- 
ford; and cannot really excuse myself for my 
seeming forgetfulness of the kind friends who 
dwell there. In strict justice therefore, I 
can hardly ask you to excuse me. And 
yet I must beg of you to do so. In small 
matters as well as in great, in our relations 
to man as well as to God, we often have 
to rely on some other quality than justice. 
If we could not, how deplorable our condition. 
" I said above, l seeming forgetfulness.' It 
is only seeming, i. e. the inference which may 
be drawn from so long a silence. I have 
not forgotten you for a day, and often, very 
often, when sadness broods over my spirit, 
does the remembrance of my friends in Hart- 
ford, their kind words, their deeds of love, 
bring consolation to me ; for there is con- 
solation in the consciousness of earthly friend- 
ships, especially in those who are of < the 
household of faith.' And so again I blame 
myself for my negligence. The truth is br. 
H., I have a natural dislike for letter writ- 
ing. I remember in a biographical notice I 
once read of your honored father, that is 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 79 

mentioned as one trait of his character. 
Surely I may claim likeness to him in one 
point at least, and may therefore expect some 
indulgence from his son. Much the more 
shame to me, but I have written only two 
letters this term, one to my sister, the other 
to my brother. 

" I do not think I love my friends less 
than other people, but somehow or other it 
is not an easy thing for me to write letters. 
I am so constituted that I become altogether 
interested in what occupies my immediate at- 
tention. I was somewhat behind in the reg- 
ular studies at the commencement of the 
term, and the consequence has been I have 
had much extra work on hand. Besides I 
feel so ignorant of many things with which 
the humblest Christian is conversant, having 
had my thoughts so long directed to other 
things, that my time has been wholly occu- 
pied with books. I think I have been en- 
abled to attain a good degree of proficiency 
this term. 

" The mere matter of daily recitations, 
however, does not seem to me the most im- 
portant object. I have to beg leave to use 



80 THE student-preacher: 

my own discretion sometimes, to deviate 
from the beaten track. 

# x * *• #■ # # 
" I have no longer any earthly home save 
in the church of Christ, and for the pres- 
ent, it seems, I must be a pensioner on its 
bounty. It is a matter of profound grati- 
tude, however, that I am counted worthy of 
a place in Christ's Family. Still, brother 
H., there is much of sadness in the thought, 
that there is no l green spot ' on earth I 
can call t my Home.' I have always had a 
good one — a quiet retreat to which I might 
always flee, and it has cost me much of 
anguish to be made to feel that I have 
one no longer. Though long since past the 
age when young men ' launch out into the 
world,' the nature of my pursuits and the 
manner of my life have not led me to rely 
much upon myself in worldly matters. I 
have always had a supporter, and his means 
have held me up. And I trust you will 
not judge me harshly, if I tell you in the 
freedom of a brother, that I suffered much 
in the fore part of this term, from the fact 
of my being left so dependent. It was all 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 81 

weakness, all wrong; but man is very weak, 
muck inclined to wrong. I have had many 
severe mental conflicts with myself, and 
much of my peace has been broken. Strong 
temptations to forsake the path of duty 
(preparing for the Christian ministry) have 
assailed me, but by the grace of -God, have 
not got the victory over me. (It is one 
thing to be tempted, another to fall.) And 
in the light of this confession you may per- 
haps see another reason for my long si- 
lence. 

" These feelings, however, have sometime 
since, been conquered by Divine assistance, 
and if I do not greatly mistake myself, I 
feel to submit humbly to all God's will con- 
cerning me. I have not the slightest doubt 
that the experience of the past few months 
has been wisely ordered by God. It has, I 
think, resulted in a more filial confidence in 
Hin^, and a renewed consecration to his ser- 
vice. If there is one thing I desire 
more than another, it is that he will make 
me a true minister of Christ. And yet I 
have so much trouble with my own heart, 
that I often think, how can I work for oth- 
7* 



82 the student-preacher: 

ers. Of my ' own self I can do nothing ; ' 
but that is not all; 'through Christ strength- 
ening me I can do all things.' Besides, it 
affords me some consolation to believe that 
one of the ways in which we can best im- 
prove and regulate our own hearts is in 
working for others. I am but a novice in 
the Christian life, but that seems an eminently 
rational view. Is it not confirmed by expe- 
rience ? Is it not in accordance with Christ's 
own declaration : ' He that doeth the will 
of God shall know of the doctrine ? ' 

" As I observe from all quarters of our 
land the complaint of a scarcity of accepta- 
ble preachers of Christ, I pray God to count 
me worthy of so high a calling. 

" My lot in life may be a humble one, 
my energies may be feeble and exercised 
obscurely, but it matters not, so long as 
they are given to Christ, my only Lord and 
Master. a 

" One of my studies this term has been 
Paul's Epistle to the Galatians ; and I trust I 
have gained not only a clearer intellectual per- 
ception of the great truths it unfolds, but also 
a more heartfelt appreciation of them. 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 83 

Christ is the one all absorbing object of the 
Apostle's thoughts and love. I have been 
much struck with the single view in which he 
contemplates Him; not as a Teacher, or an 
Example, but as an Atoning Sacrifice. Paul 
understood, he felt ' the power of the Cross.' 
Would that we all felt it more ! I cannot 
understand how an honest, intelligent stu- 
dent of Paul's epistles can reject the doc- 
trine of ' an atoning sacrifice,' or fail to 
catch some of that spirit of lofty devotion 
to Christ which burns in every line. 

" Our studies this year are purely exeget- 
ical. Next term we come to systematic 
theology, and what that will do for us re- 
mains to be seen. I cannot anticipate. 

" Truly yours, 

«D. J. GLAZIER." 

During Mr. Glazier's last year at Newton, 
it is quite evident, from the general tone 
of his letters, that while ' growing in knowl- 
edge and grace,' and acquiring greater pu- 
rity and elevation of character, his humility 
was all the while deepening. Indeed one 



84 the student-preacher: 

of his most characteristic traits was his 
modesty and self distrust. While high spir- 
ited and ambitious in the natural bent of 
his mind, he had, subsequent to his conver- 
sion, a marvellously low estimate of his own 
attainments and worth. It was only at 
times that he hoped to be at all acceptable 
or useful as a preacher of Christ. He 
was often overwhelmed with a sense of the 
vast responsibility of the work, and of his 
personal unfitness for it. His self-distrust 
happily led him to the great Source of 
strength, and he was becoming more and 
more hopeful of his eventual success. His 
modesty and courage, humility and earnest 
aspiration after perfection are seen in the 
following extracts from his letters, written 
during this period. 

"I have passed through much mental an- 
guish the last week. I have been led to 
think much of myself, and the object to 
which I have professedly devoted myself. 
And in the profound conviction of my present 
unfitness for it, in the sense of my unlike- 
ness to the Master, I have had an abundant 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 85 

source of grief. I have been led by all this 
to seek more earnestly than ever the guid- 
ance and blessing of Him from whom cometh 
all our strength, yea more who is our 
strength and our Redeemer. May He have 
mercy on me, and make me more wholly his. 
And for the future I would be more earnest 
in the religious life. I must be more truly 
consecrated in heart and life. In the ful- 
ness of my affection, do I pray that we may 
both dwell under the liorht of his counte- 



" Life is no mere holiday, but a discipline 
— a discipline of our immortal natures. "We 
shall never attain to true happiness on earth, 
and we should not expect it. We must bring 
ourselves to look at things as they are, and 
in meek reliance on Divine aid, walk serenely 
forward. We shall have trials, but God is 
good, and his mercy endure th forever. He, 
' who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb/ 
will take care of us. 0, my soul, trust thou 
in God ! 0, thou compassionate Saviour, abide 
with us ever. Thou who art so full of ten- 
derness, breath thy spirit into us." 



86 



THE student-preacher: 



" In very truth I do not deserve all the 
respect and love you so generously bestow 
on me. I have often told you so ; I feel 
that it is so. It is no mock humility that 
makes me speak thus, it is the simple ut- 
terance of my honest conviction. 

" If it be true as you say, that ' all who 
see me love me/ the more is the pity. 
Not that I am insensible to the good opinion 
of others, or ever wish to be ; but merely 
because I know I do not deserve it. If it 
be merely admiration, I despise it. The man 
or woman who is dependent for his or her 
happiness on so mean a thing, or who seeks 
to gain it, is a very weak being. If it be 
really good will or affection, I feel I do not 
deserve it. They do not see me as I see 
myself. There is many a man who walks the 
streets of Providence, having no attractions 
of face or manner, who is more worthy of 
it than I am. They cannot have before their 
minds that all glorious, all spotless, all per- 
fect example, ' the man Christ Jesus.' Ob, 
how empty are the praises of his fellow men 
to him who has that image in his mind. I 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 87 

do not sympathize with ' the orthodox de- 
nunciation of human nature, as many exhibit 
it. I care not for their arguments ; they 
have somewhat of truth, and somewhat of 
error. Man has a nature susceptible of in- 
definite good or evil. But I have a much 
shorter way of proving to myself what I 
conceive to be the truth in the case. I have 
only to dwell on the beauty and harmony of 
Christ's character, to see the deformity and 
disharmony of my own. And I think by the 
same process others would reach the same 
result. And having about with me this con- 
sciousness, the praises of men are to me no 
cause of self-glorying. They pass by me — 
I would have them pass by me as the idle 
wind, which I regard not. 

" But perhaps this is unpleasant to you, 
and it may be there is egotism even in these 
things; and so let me stop." 

Speaking of a fault of temper to which he 
had given some unpleasant manifestation, he 
says : — 

" I know you have forgiven me, but it is 



00 the student-preacher: 

more difficult to forgive myself. My way- 
wardness of temper causes me much sorrow. 

1 strive to conquer it, but it sometimes 
seems I have made but little progress. I 
do long to be more like the all perfect Ex- 
ample, to have more of his child-like and 
gentle spirit. I do pray for strength and 
wisdom from on high that I may attain 
more and more of such a likeness. My 
mind finds rest and comfort only at the 
Mercy-seat, when I think of my many de- 
partures from God, my worldliness of spirit, 
my want of consecration to the Saviour. I 
am too thoughtless, too much attracted by 
the glitter of the world, and too often forget 
what manner of person I ought to be. But 
God knoweth my desires, and- He will judge 
not as man judgeth, but in mercy and in 
love." 

The following is more hopeful : — 

"For the week before examination I had 
made a diligent use of the time, and though 
absent during a week of the term, I passed 
the ordeal quite satisfactorily to myself and 



MEMOIR OP DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 89 

all concerned. I find that when I say I 
will, and mean it, something generally comes 
to pass, and I have thought sometimes that I 
accomplish more when I work under pres- 
sure, somewhat like a steam engine. I often 
feel, M., a consciousness of strength which 
has not yet fully revealed itself in action, 
and that there are in me energies undevel- 
oped. I would be more in earnest for the 
future. 

" Though I have been thus busy the past 
week, I am not wearied in the least. Indeed 
I seem to grow stronger and stronger. My 
health is good, and I can accomplish some- 
thing. I began a sermon this forenoon, and 
have had great freedom of utterance, and 
have written several pages. The text is, 
1 Whom having not seen, ye love,' and my ob- 
ject is to show how worthy Christ, though 
unseen, is of our love. The text is a part 
of that glorious first chapter of First Peter. 

" I have broken away from that sermon 
to write this letter; and that sermon and 
this letter have kept me at home to-night 
when I might have been at the lecture in 
Boston. A sort of inspiration is on me, 
8 



90 the student-preacher: 

though it is quite likely this letter does not 
exhibit any marks of it." 

He then calls upon his soul to awake to 
the great business of life. He encourages 
himself, like David, in the Lord his -God. He 
longs for the perfect, the invisible, the im- 
mortal; and on fire for glory, seems almost 
to take wing towards heaven. But more of 
this hereafter. 

Preaching was Mr. Glazier's natural sphere. 
All his tendencies, alb his studies adapted 
him to this work. The moment he began 
to speak, though before oppressed with a 
sense of unworthiness and unfitness, he felt 
great freedom and " enlargement " of soul. 
His discourses were of the solid character, 
not ambitious, or showy in any respect, but 
sensible, solemn and earnest. Delivered in 
his peculiarly manly and impressive way, 
they were exceedingly acceptable to all the 
churches that enjoyed his services. During 
his last year at Newton, he had more invi- 
tations to preach than it was judicious to 
accept. Some of the most intelligent con- 
gregations in the neighborhood of the Insti- 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 91 

tution and elsewhere heard him with delight. 
He preached in Newton, Boston, Brookline, 
Worcester; Hartford, Conn.; Brooklyn, L. I., 
and other places, to the entire satisfaction 
of his hearers. His themes were chiefly 
Christ crucified, the renovation of the soul, 
and Heaven. Old and experienced Christians 
were much taken with his preaching. He 
was surprised on one occasion, *to find that 
he had reached the heart of a wanderer, 
who privately sought his spiritual counsel. 
This greatly encouraged him to hope that his 
future labors in the ministry might be useful. 
It appears that several overtures were made 
to him to preach, as a candidate for the pas- 
toral office, in some of our most respectable 
and intelligent churches. He was grateful 
for such kindness and appreciation; still it 
was a matter of wonder to him ; for he was 
as diffident and humble as he was gifted and 
eloquent. "With reference to one of these 
applications he wrote thus to a friend: — 

" Theo. Inst., Newton Centre, May 25, 1854. 
"Dear H.:— Yours of the 23d hist., en- 
closing letters from br. H. and the Commit- 



92 the student-preacher: 

tee of the P. St. church reached me this 
evening and I hasten to reply. 

" It would be impossible for me to relate 
the variety of feelings which the perusal 
of those letters has occasioned. I cannot but 
appreciate the kindness of bro. H. and the 
generosity of his intentions. Nor can I be 
altogether unaffected by the expression of the 
favorable regard of the B. people for so un- 
deserving a person as myself. I feel grateful 
to God that he has given me favor with his 
people thus far in all my attempts to declare 
his truth, but, (I say it in no feigned hu- 
mility,) I am oppressed with the reflection 
that I clo not deserve it. And one effect 
of the reading of those letters has been to 
lead me to utter the prayer, ' Lord make 
me more entirely thine.' 

" In regard to the expression of your 
opinion in reference to the course I ought 
to pursue in this matter, allow me to say, 
that, though it was ' unsolicited,' it is none 
the less prized. It was your duty to ex- 
press it. It was the act of a friend, and 
no apology for doing it is needed. It is 
quite true, I suppose, that I am by nature 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 93 

a little inclined to l independence ;' but I 
should be very sorry to discover that I was 
altogether unmindful of the opinion of my 
friends. 

" It so happened, however, that in this 
case, the advice of others is in exact accor- 
dance with my own views and settled pur- 
pose. I should regard it as a most un- 
wise thing to leave the Institution before 
the expiration of the full course. 

" I have too feeling a sense of my de- 
ficiencies, to purpose that; and with all the 
aids I may here acquire in three years, I 
shall go forth in ' much fear and trembling.' 

" I am therefore unwilling to visit B., if 
there be any, even the remotest probability 
that they would do a thing so unwise for 
them, as to regard me as a candidate for 
the pastoral office lately made vacant by 
Dr. W.'s resignation. And though no such 
idea is openly expressed in the letter of the 
Committee, yet from that of H. to you I 
infer something of the kind. And as it is 
not my intention to leave my course of 
study unfinished here, I would do nothing 
which would look the least like 'candidat- 
8* 



94 THE student-preacher: 

ing.' The practice among students, and even 
among settled pastors, of encouraging < calls ' 
which they do not intend to answer, just 
for the sound of it, is altogether a too 
common and very contemptible one. 

# *■ # # # # * 
"Yours, sincerely, 

«D. J. GLAZIER." 

The sermons which Mr. Glazier preached 
at Fall River, Mass., were perhaps the most 
powerful in impression of any he had de- 
livered. There was a solemnity and dignity 
in his manner, a power and pathos in his 
voice, altogether peculiar. Jefferson Borden, 
Esq., informed me that he never saw a 
young man appear or preach as he did. 
He seemed to be standing, like David Brain- 
erd, l on the sides of eternity.' The shad- 
ow of the cross rested upon his spirit. 
All Heaven appeared open to his vision. 

Most unexpectedly to himself, he received 
from this church an unanimous invitation to 
become their pastor, so soon as he should 
finish his studies. At first he had no idea 
but to decline this call, flattering and pressing 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 95 

as it -was. But on maturer reflection and 
prayer, as also consultation with his friends, 
lie came to the conclusion that he must ac- 
cept it. It seemed to be from God, and 
the more he thought of the matter, the bet- 
ter satisfied was he with his decision. His 
heart was greatly drawn out to this people. 
He felt that he should be at home with them. 
His labors among them had not only been 
acceptable, but useful. It was a season of 
revival with them, and many, especially of 
the young, had given themselves to Christ. 
He cherished the hope, therefore, that here his 
labors might be crowned with success. Still 
he had much anxiety as to the result ; and in 
reply to the congratulations of a friend, with 
whose destiny his own was intimately linked, 
he wrote thus : " My prospects look bright, you 

say; do not think of that, M ; build no 

glittering castles, for they will vanish like 
a dream. Our life will be no path of roses ; 
but must be one of self-denial." 

By these and other means, God was pre- 
paring him for active service, not on earth 
but in heaven. 

His work was nearly done. Taken sud- 



96 the student-preacher: 

denly unwell, yet strange to say, as was af- 
terwards discovered from Ms papers, not 
without a premonition of its fatal issue, 
he went to the house of one who had 
proved a mother to him, in the city of 
Providence, and who had exacted a prom- 
ise, if ever he was seriously indisposed, to 
come thither as to a home. It was with 
extreme difficulty he performed the journey. 
Next day he was somewhat relieved, but 
soon after became worse. Fever and delir- 
ium supervened. Every thing that kindness 
and skill could accomplish was done ; but 
in vain. The disease completely mastered 
his poor sensitive frame, which quivered, 
struggled, and finally yielded to the myste- 
rious power. Spasm followed spasm till 
nature was exhausted, and then he lay qui- 
etly, like a babe falling asleep on its moth- 
er's bosom, softly breathing out his life. It 
was a gracious arrangement to convey his 
acutely sensitive spirit, without conscious suf- 
fering, to the realms of the blessed. In his 
wildest wanderings, however, his mind was 
occupied about his great work. He was 
preaching or composing sermons, some on one 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 97 

topic some on another. "I have eight sermons/' 
said he, " to write ; and then," he added with 
satisfaction, " I am going to write one for my- 
self, one to please myself, and the text will 
"be 'Submit yourselves unto God.'" These 
were among his last words. Occasionally 
he had lucid intervals; and on one occasion 
he was heard repeating a part of the beau- 
tiful hvmn, 

" O when shall I see Jesus, 
And dwell with him above?" 

He smiled sweetly once or twice, the day 
he died, looking steadfastly into the face of 
those he loved. But he had lost the power 
of speech, and at half past four o'clock, on 
the 19th of March, 1855, while a deep still- 
ness reigned throughout the house, he softly 
breathed his last. He passed away so gen- 
tly, that his departure was known only by 
the cessation of his breathing, and the pro- 
found repose which settled upon his face. 
It was like the calm setting of a sweet au- 
tumnal sun, going down behind the western 
hills. 



98 THE student-preacher: 

" Behold the western evening light, 
It melts in deepening gloom; 
So calmly Christians sink away, 
Descending to the tomb. 

" The winds breathe low ; the yellow leaf 
Scarce whispers from the tree ; 
So gently flows the parting breath 
When good men cease to be. 



The crimson light is shed. 
'T is like the peace the Christian gives 
To mourners round their bed." 

We need not say that multitudes of dear 
friends gathered around that dying bed ; that 
good men came on the day of his funeral, 
to pay their last homage to his remains. 
All was peace. A deep, unwonted calm rest- 
ed upon all hearts. Tears flowed freely j but 
they were holy tears. After a most solemn 
and affecting prayer, by the Rev. Dr. Wayland, 
his body was conveyed from Providence to 
Willington, no less than twenty-five of the 
members of the church in Fall River bcinsc 
present, to testify their regard to his memory. 
Some of them accompanied his remains to 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 99 

his native place. There, after an excellent 
discourse by Rev. Mr. Walker, the pastor 
of the church at TV., and some remarks by 
his pastor, he was laid away, with many tears 
and prayers, in that quiet graveyard among* 
the hills, to await the resurrection of the 
just. 'Twas a placid afternoon in early 
spring. All was still around us. The soft 
sun shone sweetly on the newly made grave 
on the hill side. Words of hope were ut- 
tered by one who loved him ; and we came 
away reluctantly from the hallowed spot, for it 
seemed upon the very verge of heaven. Indeed 
ever since, we have felt that we were walk- 
ing in the land of Beulah, in sight of the 
heavenly city, or as one expresses it, in the 
border lands which separate the life that 
now is from the life that is to come. We 
feel that each of us might join our beloved 
brother, he from experience, and we from 
expectation, in saying, 



And solemn are their silent shades ; 
And my heart welcomes them until 
The licrht of life's long evening fades. 



100 the student-preacher: 

" I heard them spoken of with dread, 
As fearful and unquiet places ; 
Shades where the living and the dead 
Look sadly in each other's faces. 

"But since thy hand hath led me here, 
And I have seen the Border Land, 
Seen the dark river flowing near, 
Stood on its brink, as now I stand, — 

" There has been nothing to alarm 

My trembling soul ; how could I fear 
While thus encircled in His arm ? 
I never felt thee half so near." 

Before closing this sketch, we answer one 
question which naturally suggests itself to 
every mind, respecting such a death. It 
seems a mysterious providence ; and we ask, 
Why was this young brother, so gifted and 
so devout, removed from his work on 
earth at the very time he was best pre- 
pared to enter it, and when he seemed to 
be especially needed? It were sufficient to 
say, that our Heavenly Father knows best; 
but perhaps we derive a greater satisfaction 
from the suggestion that spheres of activity 
are not confined to this world. This is 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 101 

but the beginning — the prelude of our des- 
tiny. God does not permit us to rest here. 
He does not ever permit his ministers to 
do so. He needs them in heaven. Possibly 
too they may accomplish as much by their 
dying as by their living. Our dear brother 
is not the only minister that has died 
young. Spenser and Summerfield were younger 
than he ; but what a radiant track they 
have left behind them. Our divine Lord, 
the greatest preacher the world ever saw, 
was cut off when only three years older than 
his young servant, and after a three years' 
public ministry, much of which was spent in 
prayer and meditation in solitary scenes. 
Brainerd, the most successful of mission- 
aries among the Indians, died at thirty; the 
devoted Mills at thirty-one ; Henry Martyn, 
one of the most amiable and accomplished 
ministers of Christ, at thirty-two ; and Jane- 
way, who had the spirit of a seraph, at 
twenty-one, and when he had preached ^nly 
two sermons to his people. But all these 
being dead, yet speak. The good they have 
done, and are yet doing, chiefly, too, by means 
of their early and triumphant death, is im- 
9 



102 THE student-pkeachek: 

mense. Eternity alone will disclose it 
Moreover they longed, they panted to be 
gone. Janeway seemed to lie at the very 
portals of glory; and his exultant words 
yet thrill us with holy delight. " Oh, he is 
come ! He is come — the blessed Jesus ! * * 
Oh my friends stand and wonder! How 
shall I speak the thousandth part of his 
praises ! Oh, my friends look upon a dying 
man, and wonder ! — Surely this is akin to 
heaven ! If this be dying it is sweet ! Oh ! 
that you did but see and feel what I do ! 
Behold a dying man more cheerful than you 
ever saw a man in health, and in the midst 
of his sweetest worldly enjoyments ! — This 
is the hour I have waited for! Praise is 
now my work, and I shall be engaged in 
that sweet employment forever! 0, help me 
to praise him. I have nothing else to do ! 
I have done with prayer — I have almost 
done conversing with mortals. I shall soon 
behold Christ himself, who died for me, and 
loved me and washed me in his blood. I 
shall shortly be in eternity singing the song 
of Moses and the Lamb. I shall presently 
stand upon Mount Zion, with an innumerable 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 103 

company of angels and the spirits of just 
men made perfect. I shall hear the voice of 
multitudes, and be one amongst them who 
say, Hallelujah! glory, and honor, and power 
unto the Lord our God!" 

Our Daniel had the same unutterable long- 
ing for his "immortal home;" and who, 
among all his friends, would now call him 
back? Among the last letters he wrote 
from Newton before his death, was one, in 
which, speaking of the flight of time, he says, 
in all the confidence of friendship, "How 

rapidly my are we bound onward to the 

invisible, and tow eagerly we clutch at shad- 
ows and neglect the substance. Whither are 
we tending ? Why do we live ? What wor- 
thy thing have we done ? Shall we never 
truly live ? 0, my soul, lift thyself above 
these earthborn cares. Feel, aye feel thine 
immortality ! Develope thy resources. Use 
the means of culture thy God has given thee. 
Envy not the worldly great, the worldly 
prosperous. Strive not for baubles, but 
live, oh! live the only true life — live for 
humanity, for God, for that ineffable glory 
which is to be revealed! 



104 the student-preacher: 

" But what am I saying ? And yet I know 
not how to stop. Such thoughts as these 
have been in my mind for these two days 
past, and many more, and it is a relief to 
write them down, to speak them to one who 
will sympathize with me. 

" I have seemed to get new views of the 
sacred duties of life, of late. Too long have 
I dwelt in the valley of gloom and despon- 
dency. I need more hope, more enthusiasm. 
I need more courage; no, more faith. I 
would not live this halting life. I would 
cast myself with confiding trust on the ev- 
erlasting arm, and taking Chuist for my ex- 
ampler, press with unfaltering step the 
straight and rugged pathway of Christian en- 
durance and endeavor, which leadeth to eter- 
nal life. Oh ! there are times when I seem 
to feel the utter worthlessness of the world, 
in comparison with the heavenly blessedness, 
and my spirit pants, aye aches for its immor- 
tal home. I seem to hear the celestial har- 
monies, and I long to soar above earth's 
jarring discords. 

"'But not till God's good time,' a some- 
thing whispers, and till then, work while 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL J. GLAZIER. 105 

the day lasts, 'what thy hand findeth to do, 
do it with all thy might.' 

" And yet, alas ! how prone I am to forget 
the message, and sink again to the dull level 
of the world. But by the grace of God, and 
strong in his great strength, I am resolved 
to live more like a creature of immortality, 
more like Him whose disciple I profess to 
be, and who has left us an example that we 
should follow his steps. 0, thou all-perfect 
and all glorious Saviour, keep me near thy 
side through all the devious way." 



Go then, beloved brother, " in all thy glori- 
ous prime ; " for if earth be poorer, heaven is 
richer by the change. 

" Go, spirit of the sainted dead, 
Go to thy longed for, happy home : 
The tears of man are o'er thee shed, 
The voice of angels bids thee come. 

" If life be not in length of days, 
In silver locks and furrowed brow, 
But living to the Saviour's praise, 
How few have lived so long as thou ! 
9* 



106 the student-preacher: 

" Though earth may boast one gem the less, 
May not e'en Heaven the richer be? 
And myriads on thy footsteps press, 
To share thy blest eternity." * 



DISCOURSES. 






POWER OF THE CRO 



BUT GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD GLORY SAVE IN THE 
CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BY WHOM THE 
WORLD IS CRUCIFIED UNTO ME, AND I UNTO THE 
WORLD. — GAL. VI : 14. 

The Galatians, who had embraced Chris- 
tianity through the labors of the apostle Paul, 
were, it would seem, soon led astray by the 
arts of Judaizing teachers. These teachers, 
while in some respects they held to the truth, 
did nevertheless, by insisting on circumcis- 
ion as an essential duty, as a means of jus- 
tification with God, pervert the Gospel, and 
virtually make the death of Christ of no ef- 
fect. To oppose the progress of so fatal an 
error, and to bring back the Galatians to a 
simple faith in Christ crucified, was the aim 



110 THE student-preacher: 

of the apostle in the epistle from which the 
text is taken. And no one who reads it with 
close attention can fail to perceive with what 
force of argument, power of illustration and 
warmth of feeling, he unfolds to the under- 
standing of his readers the cardinal doctrine % 
of justification by faith, through a crucified Re- 
deemer. 

But, as is the case in all the writings of the 
apostle, this doctriue is not presented merely 
as a matter of speculation and formal belief. 
It is not sufficient for his purpose that the 
great truths he so clearly presents should be 
correctly apprehended by the intellect. He 
would have them received into the heart, to 
work there a moral transformation, and thus to 
control the life. And so in the chapter from 
which the text is taken, and the one preceding, 
he draws some practical inferences from the 
argument he has set forth with so much ear- 
nestness and power; or rather he makes a 
practical application of it to those to whom it 
is addressed. They who had recieved Christ 
must be Christ-like, must illustrate in their 
life the spirit of the gospel of Jesus, be cru- 
cified ( with Christ ) to sin, exercise charity and 






POWER OF THE CROSS. ' 111 

forbearance one to another, bear each other's 
burdens, and by their holy disposition and 
temper of mind, and by their bonds of love, 
fulfil the law of Christ. 

In the text, also, we discover this practical 
tendency of the apostle, or rather the intro- 
spective habit of his mind. He has argued at 
some length that the death of Christ is the 
only meaus by which man might be delivered 
from the curse of the law ; the only expedient 
by which the moral Governor of the universe 
could, in harmony with the essential attributes 
of his nature, or with the stability and honor 
of his righteous government, bestow pardon 
on his rebelious subjects, and thus lay the 
true foundation for their reconciliation to and 
union with him. He has viewed the death of 
Christ in its relation to God. He now con- 
siders it in its relation to himself. He speaks 
of a certain effect which it has produced on 
himself. He ascribes to it great moral power 
over the human heart. And it is in this he glo- 
ries. He glories in the cross of Christ, be- 
cause by it he is crucified unto the world and 
the world unto him. I do not, of course, mean 
to assert that he glories in this to the exclu- 



112 the student-preacher: 

sion of those other truths connected with the 
cross, and which he has set forth with so much 
clearness and force in the former portion of 
his epistle. But that it is the combined ef- 
fect of all these truths upon himself, on his 
own character and state, in which the apostle 
glories in the text. 

What is this effect, and how shall it be ac- 
counted for? 

The effect is described as a crucifixion of 
himself unto the world, and of the world unto 
him, by which language we are to understand 
that in the most complete and perfect manner 
he had become dead unto sin. In other 
words, the apostle declares that the cross is 
the all-efficacious instrumentality by which in 
his heart and over his life the love and do- 
minion of sin are vanquished; by which is 
overcome whatever within him or without him 
is in opposition to the divine will. 

A mighty efficacy surely is this which is 
here ascribed to the cross of Christ. But it 
is evident, from the writings of the apostle, 
that in his view the cross is the sum and sub- 
stance of the gospel, and that he everywhere 
claims for it this sanctifying power. He 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 113 

preached the cross everywhere, among Jews and 
Gentiles. He was determined to know nothing 
save Jesus Christ; not merely as the perfect 
example, though no man followed that example 
more closely than he ; not merely as the great 
Teacher, though Christ was to him the direct 
source of religious truth; but as Him cruci- 
fied. In perfect harmony with his assertion 
in the text, does he invariably speak of this 
effect of the cross on himself : " I am crucified 
with Christ ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me ; and the life I now live in 
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
who loved me and gave himself for me." 

In his view, it was the cross which had the 
sovereign efficacy not only to save men from 
the curse of sin, but from the dominion and 
power thereof. And therefore let other men 
glory in what they would ; in their carnal and 
fleshly ordinances, their rigid observance of 
external rites, their formal adherence to the 
ceremonial law ; " but God forbid," says he, 
" that I should glory, save in the cross of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." 

We should, however, greatly err, and expose 
ourselves to the charge of gross superstition, 
10 



114 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

should we attribute any of this efficacy of the 
cross to the bare and ragged wood on which 
the Prince of Glory died. We have, we con- 
fess, something akin to respect for that feeling 
which prompts the devotee of a superstitious 
faith to treat with reverence the instrument 
of the sufferings of our Lord ; but we ascribe 
to that instrument no sacredness and no moral 
power. It is the death of Christ, as an 
atonement for sin, and the stupendous truths 
involved in it, which produce this effect, which 
exert this sanctifying power on man. 

Neither is it asserted that these truths of 
themselves, and independent of any other 
agency, can ever produce the effect of which 
we speak. We believe that a man, by care- 
ful and thorough study of the Scriptures, may 
arrive at just views concerning these truths, 
may have a correct intellectual appreciation 
of them, may be able to trace them in all 
their bearings, to exhibit them even with clear- 
ness and fidelity in their relations both to God 
and to man, and yet not feel their power in 
his own soul, nor be transformed by them 
into the image of Him who is at once their 
source and their object. The convictions of 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 115 

the understanding neither regenerate nor sanc- 
tify man. The heart needs that demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit which belongs to God alone 
to give. And it is only when these truths 
are brought home to the conscience and the 
heart, and applied in all their power by the 
almighty energy of the Spirit, that the effect 
of which we speak is produced. They are 
but the instrument in the hands of the Spirit, 
who is the author of all moral changes. 

Bearing in mind, then, what is meant by the 
cross of Christ, and the agency of the Spirit 
in the work of sanctification, we may now con- 
sider how this effect of the cross on man is 
accounted for. 

And first, the cross has this sanctifying power 
because it presents to man the clearest exhi- 
bition of the enormity of sin. 

Of all the things connected with the 
dispensation of divine grace, there is none, 
perhaps, of which we have so inadequate a 
conception as sin, its essential deformity, and 
its most fatal tendency. But it certainly con- 
cerns us most nearly to appreciate these 
things justly. And if you accept but the fact, 
a fact so clearly taught in the New Testa- 



116 



THE STUDENT-PREACHER 



ment, that the death of Christ was an atone- 
ment for sin, you have the strongest possible 
proof of its aggravated nature in the sight of 
God. By the severity of the sufferings en- 
dured on its account, viewed in connection 
with the super-angelic nature of the sufferer, 
you may see in all its deformity that which 
occasioned the infliction of them. Other 
means, indeed, may be employed to awaken 
in man the conviction of the enormity of sin, 
with more or less of success in individual 
cases. Some shall be led to it by arguments, 
which prove, on the admitted principles of 
ethics, that sin is wrong in itself, contrary to the 
holiness, the justice, and the goodness of God, 
a serious evil done to our own souls, which 
have the capacity for virtue, and which find 
their true end only in God. But it is main- 
tained that such considerations are adapted 
only to a limited few, and that for the great 
mass of mankind the cross is the only truth- 
ful exhibition of that abominable thing which 
God hates, and that in this respect even it is 
the wisdom of God unto salvation. 

As we look with the eye of faith to Calva- 
ry, we see there how a pure and holy God 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 117 

regards sin. We have an open exhibition of 
its enormity; of His displeasure against it. 
The simple fact that the precious "blood of the 
immaculate Son of God was shed in expiation 
for sin, gives us a more vivid conception of 
its enormity than all the logical demonstra- 
tions of all the moralists could give, than all 
the express declarations of Holy Writ apart 
from their connection with the cross. It is 
impossible to conceive any truth so calculat- 
ed to penetrate us with a just horror of sin 
in general, and to cover us with the deepest 
confusion for our offences, as the doctrine of 
the cross. It stamps upon sin a character of 
darkness which no tongue can utter; and 
while it pours gladness into the bosom of 
the penitent, to the presumptuous rebel it 
speaks only death. 

Again: In the cross is seen the clearest 
exhibition of the Divine justice. 

Reason, it is true, tells man that God must 
be just. For the simplest idea of God is 
that of a being of infinite perfections. Such 
a being would be alone worthy of our deepest 
reverence and love. But how could we rev- 
erence or love a being without justice. It 
10* 



118 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

seems also to be a conviction of man, the 
testimony of the universal conscience, that 
this justice demands strict reparation for of- 
fences. What other meaning have those oft 
repeated prayers and penances, those terrible 
and bloody sacrifices of superstition and hea- 
thenism the world over? They are but so 
many painful efforts, on the part of those who 
perform them, to atone for their past sinful- 
ness, and to offer some satisfaction to the 
justice of the Deity. Still man is much inclined 
to think that God is altogether such an one as 
himself, and to attribute to him human weak- 
ness. There are some who love to repre- 
sent God in the light of an indulgent and feeble 
father, who, tired of his own severity, shuts 
his eyes on the faults of a guilty child; or 
of a timid governer, who does not inflict 
upon offenders the threatened penalty of his 
laws. 

But how utterly falsified are all such views 
by the cross of Christ. From that cross the 
justice of God shines forth in an awful blaze 
of light. In the death of the adorable victim 
who hangs thereon, we feel how inadequate 
were our conceptions of this attribute of the 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 119 

Deity. We see the presumption and folly of 
comparing it with any human standard. Now 
we perceive that this justice, so far from 
being mingled with any human weakness, is 
so stern, so passionless, that it will not spare 
God's only begotten Son, when he voluntarily 
presents himself, but inflicts upon him the 
penalty of the dishonored law. As we stand 
in sight of that most appaling spectacle; as 
we hear the groans of anguish, which betoken 
the agony of spirit on the part of Him who 
is voluntarily drinking to its dregs the cup 
of the Divine displeasure against sin; as we 
mark how the very elements are conspiring 
to enhance the awful grandeur of the scene, 
the darkness which covers the heavens, the 
rending of the vail of the temple, the quaking 
of the earth, the breaking asunder of the 
rocks, and the coming forth of the sheeted 
dead from their sepulchres — in all this do 
we behold the most tremendous exhibition 
of the inviolable justice of Him who is the 
moral Governor of the universe, in whose 
hands are all our destinies, and who has de- 
clared that " the soul that sinneth, it shall 
die." 



120 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

Thus does the cross appeal, trumpet-tongue d, 
to man's fears ; and who that knows the nature 
of man, will deny the powerfully restraining 
influence of such an appeal? 

But while the cross of Christ thus shows 
man, in all its nakedness, the enormity of 
sin, and in all its awful character the justice 
of God, thus urging him by the strongest 
appeal to his fears to escape from sin, to 
seek to avoid the retribution which is sure to 
follow it, it proclaims one other fact which 
stirs the deepest and best emotions of his soul, 
and gives an all-controlling influence to his 
life. An atonement is there made for sin. 
The Great Sacrifice, so often shadowed forth 
in all the religions of the nations, is there of- 
fered up. The justice of God, the honor of 
his government, is vindicated j there is no lon- 
ger any obstacle to the exercise of his all 
comprehending pity and love j and man, the 
guilty offender, can be pardoned. 

And this brings me to still another consid- 
eration by which I would account for the sanc- 
tifying power of the cross. 

In the cross of Christ there is the fullest 
exhibition of Divine love. 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 121 

The proofs of the essential benignity of 
God, are indeed abundant in all his ways 
and works. This, not less than his eternal 
power and God-head, is manifested in the 
things he has made. It is written all over 
this material universe. It is legible no less 
in the moral than in the physical creation. 
It may be seen in an enlarged view of the 
dealings of God with every individual and 
with our race. Every succeeding dispensation 
of Divine grace, has been only a larger and 
clearer development of the love of God. 

But in the wondrous plan of redemption 
through Jesus Christ, of which the cross is 
the centre from which all things proceed and 
to which all things tend, there has dawned upon 
the world, the noon-day fulness of the Divine 
compassion. How feeble, in comparison with 
this, are all the other manifestations of that 
attribute of the Almighty? Reason as we 
may concerning the benevolence of the Deity; 
adduce as we can the long array of proofs 
from the works of nature and providence ; sum- 
mon the witnesses from every field of science 
and human investigation, and blend all the 
testimony into one great argument; yet the 



122 THE STUDENT-PREACIIER. 

grand demonstration is not there. It is where 
an apostle has placed it, and only there. " In 
this was manifested the love of God towards 
us ; because God sent his only begotten Son 
into the world, that we might live through 
him. Herein is love, not that we loved God 
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be 
the propitiation for our sins." " Herein " re- 
sponds the believer " is love ; " " love unspeak- 
able, and full of glory." 

And the more fully he apprehends what his 
condition would be without Christ, the claims 
of that moral law, under which every son of 
Adam is born, the justice and the extent of 
those claims, and the equity of that punish- 
ment with which it threatens all transgressors, 
the more truly does he appreciate the extent 
and greatness of that love which has provided 
for his escape, and the more deeply does he 
enter into the idea of the apostle, " Herein 
is love." 

u Herein," too, lies especially the sanctify- 
ing power of the cross. "Herein" is the 
power which, by the Spirit, subdues the re- 
bellious heart, melts it in contrition, moulds it 
anew, and thus recreates the man. Nor is it 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 123 

difficult to perceive the reasonableness of this 
assertion. Man cannot be influenced to the 
right by an appeal to his fears only or chief- 
ly. For, he has affections, powerful in their 
nature for good or evil, and which are uncon- 
querable by time, by anguish, or by death it- 
self. They are the secret springs of his life. 
His outward acts do but reveal the objects 
and the character of his affections. And so, 
would you turn his life into a new channel, 
you must first awaken his love. But love is 
not commanded, it is inspired. The severest 
injunctions, and the most formidable threat- 
enings, cannot create in the soul a single emo- 
tion of tenderness, much less cause the affec- 
tions of the soul to rise to the benignant 
Father in heaven. 

The vivid exhibition of the enormity of sin, 
and of the inviolable justice of God in the 
atoning death of Christ upon the cross, do, 
as we have said, make a tremendous appeal to 
man's fears; and in what we now say, we 
allow that appeal its full weight in the secret 
process by which man becomes crucified unto 
sin. But this of itself is not sufficient to that 
end. Nay, more, it is not the principal cause 



124 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

of the sanctifying power of the cross. Man 
can steel his heart against the fierce denunci- 
ations of vengeance ; but he cannot so easily 
resist the touching persuasions of love. His 
very nature forbids it. The exhibition of 
earnest and self-denying affection toward him, 
degraded as he may be, naturally awakens 
a kindred feeling in his own breast. And 
this principle of human nature, illustrated so 
often in the life of every individual, an 
apostle has embodied in the declaration, " We 
love Him ( i. e. God ) because He first loved 
us." 

But God might have been as merciful as 
he is, had not Christ died. For we cannot 
suppose that the death of his Son, changed 
in the slightest degree the essential nature 
of Him who has said, " I am the Lord ; I 
change not." Yet man could never have 
known the extent, or felt the power of his 
mercy, but by the exhibition on the cross. 
His mercy could have been manifested to 
man's heart in no other way. And so it 
cometh to pass, that when the believer speaks 
of the love of God in the plan of redemption, 
he views it as it is revealed in the sufferings 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 125 

and death of Jesus Christ; and to Him, as 
to God manifest in the flesh, " God acting, de- 
veloping the divine attributes through human 
nature," are the warmest affections of the soul 
raised. And this is in accordance with the 
prediction of the Saviour himself, who said, 
when referring to his approaching death, " And 
I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto 
me." What can be more natural than this? 
In the light of the principles we have already 
advanced, concerning the way in which the 
affections of the soul are called into exercise, 
what can be imagined more eminently fitted 
to produce such a result, than the amazing 
spectacle of so exalted a being, humbled, suf- 
fering, dying for us ? 

<l Greater love hath no man than this, that 
a man lay down his life for his friends." 
"For scarcely for a righteous man will one 
die, yet peradventure for a good man some 
would even dare to die. But God commend- 
eth his love toward us, in that while we 
were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 

" O for this love let rocks and hills 
Their lasting silence break, 

11 



126 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

And alt harmonious human tongues 
The Saviour's praises speak. 

11 Angels assist our mighty joys ; 
Strike all your harps of gold ; 
But when you raise your highest notes, 
His love can ne'er be told," 

Human nature must have lost all essential 
traits, all the fibres of the human heart 
must have been broken, if the conviction of 
so great a love does not excite all our love. 

Herein, my hearers, is the Divine wisdom 
of the cross revealed. By the exhibition of 
a love whose heights and depths no finite mind 
can fathom, it produces in the soul of the 
believer what all the combined efforts of hu- 
man ingenuity, what all the wisdom of all the 
philosophers can never do — love to God as 
he is manifested in Jesus Christ. 

Now, what must be the legitimate effect of 
this on the believer's character and life ? 
Manifestly the one which the apostle sets forth 
in the text, a crucifixion of himself unto sin. 
Has Christ died for his sins, and can he love 
his sins ? Has Christ died to relieve him 
from the curse of the law, and will he not 



POWER OF THE CROSS. 127 

from henceforth obey the law ? It is a strange 
love that does not produce obedience. 

I have thus attempted to account for the 
sanctifying "power of the cross. I have en- 
deavored to show that it presents to man 
the clearest demonstration of the enormity 
of sin, of the justice and benevolence of God; 
thus appealing to man's fears, and to his moral 
sentiments, especially to his affections ; and 
thus on the one hand awakening in him an 
abhorrence of sin, and restraining him from 
the commission of it,* and on the other, pro- 
ducing in his heart love to God; making obe- 
dience to the divine will joyous, and, so to 
speak, the spontaneous effort of his soul. 

In view of this great effect wrought in man 
through the instrumentality of the cross, and 
of the divine wisdom in the adaptation of the 
means to the end, how rational are the grounds 
on which the apostle gloried only in the 
cross. 

And in conclusion, my brethren, let us bring 
this subject home to ourselves. It presents 
to us the cross of Christ as the appointed 
instrument, not only for our deliverance 
from the curse of the law, but also, in the 



128 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

hands of the Spirit, for our ever increasing 
advancement in holiness of heart and life. 
Let us cherish it in each of these particulars ; 
not regarding the one to the exclusion of the 
others. 

And if there be any here present, who are 
as yet without Christ, but who have begun to 
feel the heavy burden of sin pressing down 
upon their spirits; who desire to be freed 
from it; who have in vain made many at- 
tempts to overcome the evil propensities of 
their nature, and to obtain purity of heart; 
before your eyes I would set forth Christ 
crucified, Jesus the only begotten and well 
beloved Son of God, dying for you. Then 
behold the divine provision, not only for your 
escape from the punishment due to your sin- 
fulness, but also from its degrading bondage. 
Turn not away from the Sufferer. Open your 
hearts to receive Him ; bid Him enter ; and 
like the lame man of old, who was healed of 
his infirmity by the miraculous cure wrought 
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you 
shall be healed of your spiritual malady, aud 
shall go forth from this temple praising God. 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN 



FOR GREAT IS YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN. 
MATT. V. 12. 

In these words the Saviour presents the 
reasons why His disciples should rejoice and 
be exceeding glad even amid persecutions and 
revilings for His sake. "Blessed are ye 
when men shall revile you, and persecute you 
and say all manner of evil against you falsely 
for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, 
for great is your reward in heaven." 

He who knew what was in man, foresaw 
with what hatred the world would treat 
those who had embraced a religion, the fun- 
damental doctrines and requirements of which 
are in direct opposition to the pride and sel- 
fishness of the unrenewed heart. With that 
entire truthfulness which marked all his words 
and acts while in the flesh, He did not hes- 
11* 



130 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

itate distinctly to declare to them what would 
be their fate. He used none of the arts of 
the imposter in gaining converts to himself. 
He excited in them no hopes of present gain, 
of worldly aggrandizement. Contempt, and 
hatred, and persecution were to be their por- 
tion. But as they were to serve a divine 
Master, so their services should have a di- 
vine reward. And, in harmony with the 
character of Him who would bestow it, that 
reward should be great; not in the present 
world, but in the world beyond the grave; 
their reward should be great in heaven. 

The promise contained in the text, though 
made to the first disciples, and given to them 
as an encouragement in peculiar circumstan- 
ces, must be susceptible of a much wider ap- 
plication. The first disciples were but dis- 
ciples of a common Lord, whose promises 
and consolations are for all who in any age 
believe on His name. Nor can we suppose 
that the reward here promised is bestowed 
only on those who encounter open persecu- 
tion for Christ's sake. It is general in its 
nature. It is made to all Christians, and is 
given to them as an encouragement to fidelity 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 131 

in a life of obedience to their Lord and 
Master. They who in any age or in any 
circumstances, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and walk in the way of his commandments, 
may take to themselves the assurance, that 
their reward in Heaven will be great. 

It may not be amiss here to observe, that 
though the sacred writers show no reluctance 
in using the term reward, we must be care- 
ful to bear in mind, that the term is not to 
be taken in its strict and proper sense. We 
are taught in Scripture, that man can merit 
nothing of God; and we cannot suppose that 
the rewards of the righteous, so often men- 
tioned in the Bible, are to be considered 
strictly as wages which God owes to them, or 
as an equivalent for the faithful performance 
of those duties which ought to be performed 
first as if there were no recompense. 

We understand by the term reward, as 
used in the text and generally in the New 
Testament, the inseparable result which God 
has joined to a life of Christian obedience. 

In considering, therefore? the greatness of 
the Christian's reward in heaven, our thoughts 
will be turned to some of the leading cir- 



132 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

cumstances which reason and Scripture en- 
courage us to believe will constitute the hap- 
piness of the future state of the righteous. 

It must however, be confessed at the out- 
set, that direct and positive information on 
this subject is not abundant in the Scriptures. 
Much of the language in which the future 
state of the good is mentioned or alluded 
to, is indefinite, popular, and figurative. We 
are told of an inheritance incorruptible, un- 
defiled, and that fadeth not away ; of a 
crown of glory, and of life eternal; of treas- 
ures where neither moth nor rust can corrupt ; 
of a kingdom which shall not be moved; of 
a building of God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens; of the many 
mansions ; of a place prepared from the foun- 
dation of the world, into which the righteous 
shall be admited, and where there shall be 
no more death nor sorrow. 

All this, and similar language and imagery 
are fitted to impress us with the excellence, 
the indestructible character, the extent and 
greatness of the* Christian's reward, but 
leave us much in the dark concerning its 
nature. Still something may be inferred 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 133 

from the general strain of revelation; and if 
this be done in the exercise of reason, and 
fancy be not permitted to frame a thousand 
vain conceits, the subject may be a profit- 
able one. For, on our views of that 
future state, very much depend the kind 
and the amount of exertion we shall make 
in preparation for it. 

What then are some of the conceptions 
we are encouraged to form of the greatness 
of the Christian's reward in heaven, or of 
some of the leading circumstances which go 
to make up the future and eternal state of 
the righteous ? 

I. It is reasonable to suppose that the 
happiness of heaven, will in part consist 
in a total exemption from all the natural 
ills to which in this life we are necessa- 
rily exposed. For, if heaven is to be a 
state of reward and happiness, the removal 
from it of all natural evil is obviously in- 
dispensable. It is presumed that the in- 
habitants of that holy place, will be freed 
from all the ills which flesh is heir to. 
For without being definitely informed as to 
the characteristics of the bodies of the glorified 



134 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

children of God, we are assured that, " that 
which is sown in corruption, will be raised 
in incorruption; that which is sown in dishon- 
or, will be raised in honor; that which is 
sown in weakness, will be raised in power; 
that which is sown a natural body, will be 
raised a spiritual body." 

And this view is corroborated by the 
Saviour's own words. " They who are thought 
worthy to obtain that world and the res- 
urrection from the dead, neither marry nor 
are given in marriage, neither can they die 
any more; for they are like unto the an- 
gels, and are the children of God, being 
the children of the resurrection." 

Again, it is presumed that in heaven 
there will be a total exemption from all 
those ills which are incident to the present 
life as a state of probation and discipline. 
It is the teaching of Scripture that the af- 
flictions of the righteous man are ordained in 
mercy, and are one of the means which God 
uses to transfer his affections from the things 
of earth to things heavenly and divine. 
His highest good demands some bitter expe- 
riences. So earthly is he in his nature, so 



HAPPINESS OP HEAVEN. 135 

strong in him are the old habits of sin, 
even though renewed by the grace of God, 
that he must, while in the world, be sub- 
ject to the discipline of his heavenly Fa- 
ther,- which, though the highest proof of 
His wise regard for his earthly children, is 
oftentimes painful to be borne. 

But in heaven our probationary state will 
have ended, its great purpose will have been 
accomplished, and no such discipline will be 
needed. 

Pain, we cannot believe, will exist in 
heaven. There will be no more sickness 
and disease, fatigue and accident, hunger and 
thirst, nor dread of dissolution. There will 
be no anxious days, no restless nights; no 
tears are shed there ; no breaking of family 
ties there, no death bed scenes; no funeral 
bells; every sigh will be hushed, every woe 
will be forgotten. Tranquility, serene and 
holy, reigns undisturbed throughout the heav- 
enly mansions. 

With what joyful confidence may the faith- 
ful Christian, then, look forward to that fu- 
ture state of eternal blessedness, in which 
he shall be freed from all the natural ills of 



136 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

the present life, and how strong may be his 
assurance, that in this respect even, his re- 
ward in heaven will be great. 

II. Closely allied to this view, and in 
part resulting from it, is another, which we 
are permitted, we think, to form, concerning 
the happiness which will be experienced in 
heaven, as the reward of a faithful adher- 
ence to Christ. Not only will there be in 
heaven a total exemption from all natural, 
but also from all moral evil. If the for- 
mer is regarded as necessary to a state of 
reward and blessedness, much more must the 
latter be deemed essential to the complete 
felicity of a rational soul. 

The kingdom of God, as the inward reign of 
purity and peace, is indeed begun on earth, 
but it will have its glorious consummation 
only in that spiritual and eternal world be- 
yond the grave. The gospel of Christ is 
indeed intended to work in man a moral 
transformation, but it does not therefore fol- 
low that this work is finished or perfected 
while he dwells in the fleshly tabernacle. 
Nor would the facts of Christian experience 
by any means warrant such a conclusion. 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 137 

The Christian, though born of God and an 
heir of heaven, does not become a full-grown 
saint on earth. The remnants of the old 
man are in him, He is not wholly free 
from the power of sinful habits. He is 
ever exposed to the untoward influences of 
the world, the flesh and the devil. The path 
of his regenerate life is the straight and 
rugged pathway of Christian obedience. His 
life is a warfare, a stern encounter with 
the hosts of evil within and around him. 
His efforts are often attended with failure. 
In his best attainments there is mingled 
much of evil. Often, in the anguish occa- 
sioned by the sinful propensities and desires 
of his but partly sanctified nature, is the 
bitter cry wrung from his soul, " 0, wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death." Often, in the still- 
ness of meditation and earnest introspec- 
tion when the law of God shines in its aw- 
ful purity down into the depths of his spir- 
itual nature, and is searching out whatever 
is in opposition to itself, is he forced to ex- 
claim, " I am a man of unclean lips." He 
too, " finds in his members, a law warring 
12 



138 THE STUDENT-PKEACHEE. 

against the law of God." In him, too, " the 
spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." 
He must often utter that seeming paradox, 
" What I would, that do I not ; and what 
I hate, that do I." 

Doubtless this bitterness must be mins-led in 
his earthly experience. Doubtless, tempta- 
tion and conflict are needful for him here. 
The gold is purified by the fire. The 
Christian character is strengthened and 
built up by a stern resistance against evil. 
In the sense of his weakness lies his 
strength. 

Still we would insist on the moral trans- 
formation of man as the one grand primary 
object of the Christian dispensation. Salva- 
tion is not deliverance from the punishment 
of sin only, it is deliverance from sin; from 
the love of it, from the power of it. Let 
not that be lost sight of. Let no one use 
the before mentioned facts of Christian expe- 
rience as the shield from an upbraiding 
conscience. Let them rather convince him 
of the mighty ruin sin has worked in the 
human soul, and lead him to vigilance and 
earnestness in the religious life. But let the 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 139 

Christian be humble and faithful, though bearing 
about with him ever the grievous burden of 
his many imperfections, with grateful joy send 
his thoughts forward to that state of eternal 
blessedness, in which his nature shall be 
freed from all impurities and "be without 
spot or wrinkle or any such thing." For to 
what purpose has God awakened in the re- 
generate soul, these earnest longings after 
entire deliverence from sin, these aspirations 
for a state of moral purity and holiness, 
these far reaching desires towards a com- 
plete conformity to the image of the Holy 
One, if they be but idle vanities, if they 
shall not have their glorious realization in 
that eternal world above ? In this universal 
reaching forth of the renewed soul towards 
a state of entire moral purity, do I find a 
strong probability that such a state awaits it 
hereafter. Will the benignant Heavenly 
^Father excite in his children the hope of 
such a state only to disappoint them ? 

This probability is greatly strengthened, 
when we consider that much of the impurity 
of the regenerate soul here springs from its 
union with a frail and sinful body, from which 



140 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

in heaven it will be delivered. That spir- 
itual body, of which the apostle so sublimely 
speaks, cannot be like the present one, nor 
like it retard the free action of a soul that 
delights in God. 

And still further confirmation of this view 
is found in the fact already noticed, that in 
heaven, the Christian will be free from all 
those external influences of an evil nature 
which are inseparable from the present state. 

We cannot believe that temptation in any 
form will be permitted to assail the Chris- 
tian in heaven. The great enemy of souls 
with all his infernal cunning can not reach 
him there. The allurements to evil under 
the various forms of pleasure, and business, 
and wealth, and fame, can have no place 
among the inhabitants of the celestial world. 
They cannot climb to heaven. 

But from the language of Scripture, brief 
though it be on this subject, may the Chris* 
tian derive the assurance, that in heaven he 
shall have complete deliverance from moral 
evil. In the words of the Saviour already 
quoted, the children of the resurrection are 
declared " to be like the angels" And St. 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 141 

John in his first epistle, says : " Beloved 
now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear (fully) what we shall be, 
but we know that when He shall appear we 
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as 
He is." And if we are to be like the 
angels and like God, then must we be like 
the angels and like God in unsullied moral 
purity and holiness. 

May not the faithful Christian, then, con- 
fidently expect that he shall at last enter 
on a state of existence in which there shall 
be a total exemption from all moral evil, 
seeing that such a state is requisite for the 
complete felicity of a rational soul, one to- 
wards which the regenerate soul intensely 
yearns ? Is not this a state which seems to 
follow by necessity the separation of such a 
soul from its union with a frail and sinful 
body, and removal from all external influences 
of an evil nature ; and one in which the 
voice of inspiration declares, he shall be like 
the angels, and like God? 

Let him, therefore, faithfully labor and 
quietly wait for that heavenly state, in 
which his hard warfare with sin shall have 
12* 



142 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

been ended, when there shall be no temp- 
tations to assail him, no sinful desires to 
resist, no infirmities to mourn over; but 
where the soul which on earth did hunger 
and thirst after righteousness shall be filled; 
where, freed from all contact with earth, and 
cleansed from all stains, it shall exult in its 
immortality, and put on in its perfection 
the image of its Creator and Father. By 
as much then as he values a completed de- 
liverance from moral evil, and a likeness 
unto God, by so much let him be cheered 
with the belief that his reward in heaven 
will be great. 

III. But we are encouraged to believe, 
that the happiness of the future state which 
is promised as a "reward to the faithful 
Christian will also consist, in part, in the 
inward activity of his intellectual faculties, 
and his advancement in spiritual knowledge. 

This seems to be an inevitable result 
from the two preceding heads of our dis- 
course. 

We are all aware of the mutual relations 
and dependence of the physical, the moral 
and intellectual parts of man. We know 
how very greatly the condition of one af- 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 143 

fects the condition of the others. And if 
we argue as we have done, and as no 
doubt we may, that the separation of the 
regenerate soul from the earthly influences 
of the body, will be followed by its ex- 
emption from moral evil, or by a vast im- 
provement in its moral faculties and powers, 
we may with great confidence expect a pro- 
portionate improvement in its intellectual 
faculties and powers. Clothed with a pu- 
rified body, which will not experience the 
impulse of unholy desires, which will nev- 
er be disordered by sickness or disease, 
freed from all moral impurities, the mind 
of the Christian, it is in the highest de- 
gree reasonable to suppose, will be tranquil 
and collected, healthy and vigorous, and will 
have an ever increasing relish for the pur- 
est and noblest themes of meditation. 

Even in our present state, the exercise of 
our intellectual faculties and the acquisition 
of spiritual knowledge, are among our high- 
est and most refined pleasures. Christianity, 
while it has to do especially with the heart, 
does not neglect the understanding. While it 
labors to mould the temper and the affec- 



144 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

tions, it does not discourage exertions of the 
intellect. It favors its growth and activity, 
stimulates and exalts all its faculties. It is 
the inspirer of deep and generous thought. 
It is a libel on Christianity to say that it 
is unfavorable to the exercise and expansion 
of the mind. Those spiritual objects to 
which it directs our attention impart dignity 
to our views and feelings. They make us 
feel that we were made for excellence not 
attainable in the present life ; that we cannot 
reap the full fruits of our capacity in this 
imperfect state. For, notwithstanding this 
influence of Christianity in expanding the in- 
tellect, notwithstanding much that may be 
learned of God and divine things even here, 
yet in these respects it is a most imperfect 
state. With the largest attainments one 
may be able to make in spiritual knowledge, 
still it is true, that " clouds and darkness 
are round about God." The divine nature, 
perfections and government, are indeed the 
noblest subjects of meditation which can en- 
gage the human attention, and in the con- 
templation of them the devout mind enjoys 
the most exalted pleasure. But so strong 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 145 

are the impressions of sense, so wide is 
the distance between the finite and the In- 
finite, so immeasurably higher are God's 
thoughts than our thoughts, that at the best 
we know but little in comparison with what 
remains to be known. We must here walk 
by faith and not by sight. 

But the tendency of Christianity to excite, 
to form, and to expand the intellect, points 
we think, to our future destiny, and when 
this is viewed in connection with the fact of 
an entire exemption from all natural and 
moral evil, the belief that in heaven there 
will be an increased activity of the mental 
powers, and an advancement in spiritual 
knowledge, seems to rest on a basis of 
reason. 

Of the mode in which our intellectual fac- 
ulties will operate, we cannot even conjuncture; 
but we may expect that it will be more re- 
fined and perfect than any of which we can 
now form a conception. 

Again, the language of the Scriptures seem 
to warrant the belief and expectation that 
with those who will be admitted to heaven 
the intellectual capacity will be wonderfully 



146 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

increased and their attainments in knowledge 
be beyond all present conception. For, what 
is the language of the apostle Paul on this 
subject? "Now," says he, "we see through 
a glass darkly, but then we shall see face 
to face ; now we know in part, but then 
we shall know even as we are known." And 
in the passage from John's first epistle, already 
quoted, the reason given for the assertion, that 
Christians shall " be like God," is that " they 
shall see Him as He is." 

From all these considerations the Christian 
may confidently expect that in that future 
state, which lies just beyond the dark river, 
he will, in the enlargement of his faculties 
and his increase in knowledge, find an exhaust- 
less source of comfort and of strength. In 
heaven the clouds of ignorance which now 
collect around us will be gradually dispelled. 
The page of truth, unsullied and serene, will 
lie open before us, and doubts shall no more 
vex or disturb us. The wonders of grace 
will be unfolded; the crooked things made 
straight; the things hard to be understood 
made plain. TVe shall see order in what has 
seemed intricate ; wisdom in what we have 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 147 

deemed unaccountable ; kindness in what has 
seemed severity; and good where we have seen 
only evil. Freed from all disturbing causes ; 
holding constant intercourse with God; our 
souls imbued with all that they can comprehend 
of the vast ; of the great, of the powerful in the 
Lord; we shall become more and more ac- 
quainted with the extent and harmony and 
perfection of God's works ; obtain additional 
and more distinct views of his moral glories, 
and be more fully conscious of His all-pervad- 
ing presence and love. 

And to him who reflects on the limited 
attainments one can here make in the knowl- 
edge of divine things, and yet how fervently 
the earnest mind seeks to comprehend them, 
and how ennobling in its influence on the 
soul such knowledge is, what does this quick- 
ened activity of the mental powers, this con- 
stant and everlasting advancement in spirit- 
ual knowledge prove, if not the greatness of 
the Christian's reward in heaven ! We have 
thus considered some of the leading circum- 
stances, which reason and Scripture teach 
us to believe will go to make up the happi- 
ness of heaven. 



148 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

We have named but these : a total ex- 
emption from all natural evil ; a total 
exemption from all moral evil; the increased 
activity of our intellectual faculties, and our 
consequent advancement in spiritual knowl- 
edge. That they are all, or even the 
most important, elements of the future and 
eternal happiness of the righteous, is not by 
any means asserted. For, in speaking of that 
state which lies beyond the reach of mortal 
vision, and one concerning which the Word 
of inspiration does not make full revelation, 
caution is obviously necessary; and wherein 
we are ignorant, a reverential silence alone 
befits us. Nor is it said that other circum- 
stances, in which the happiness of heaven 
will consist, might not be named, which have 
as solid a basis in reason and Scripture as 
those which have now been presented. 

But enough, we think, has been advanced 
for the enforcement of the thought that the 
Christian's reward in heaven will be great. 
In the light of this subject how elevating 
and ennobling in its tendency, appears the 
gospel of the Son of God. For, what is 
more eminently fitted to give an enlargement 
of view, loftiness of desire and aim, true 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 149 

nobleness of character, than the prospect 
which opens up into the future to him who 
believeth in Jesus, and is faithful to the 
end; of that state of eternal blessedness, 
in which all the God-given faculties with 
which we are so richly endowed, but which 
in this imperfect scene are but partially- 
developed, shall have their complete and 
glorious fruition. 

Living as we do amid the vanities of this 
fleeting world, subject to all the fluctuations 
of human affairs, surrounded by the images 
of change and decay and death, it is en- 
nobling to reflect on that world which the 
gospel of Jesus has revealed; where all is 
real and substantial; where no doubts be- 
wilder and no hopes betray. Creatures of 
a day, of the earth, earthy; the gospel of 
Jesus points us to an immortal existence 
of unsullied purity and holiness. By nature 
attached to the things which perish with 
the using, the gospel of Jesus would trans- 
fer our affections to the enduring riches ot 
heaven; and by the prospect of an eternal 
recompense, would stimulate all the noblest 
13 



150 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

energies of our nature in the attainment of 
it. 

Shall not this glorious prospect which the 
gospel opens to our view, by the blessing 
of God on our reflections, induce us to the 
cultivation of every Christian grace and vir- 
tue. Shall it not lift our souls above every- 
thing that is sordid and selfish and grovel- 
ling, and attract us to < whatever is generous 
and pure and holy? Shall not the eternal 
reward which is offered to the faithful 
Christian, reconcile us to do and to suffer 
all our Master's will concerning us ? Know- 
ing in whom we have believed, and that He 
is able to perform that which He has prom- 
ised, we may in all seasons of adversity 
rejoice and be exceeding glad; in the day 
of sickness, and in the declining years of 
life, welcome the approach of death, as 
the conductor to that blissful region where 
no natural nor moral evil will affect us; 
where God will reveal himself more fully 
unto us than we can now conceive of, and 
where in the contemplation of his resplen- 
dent glories we shall forever advance in the 
knowledge of His will, and be conscious of 
an ever-increasing likeness to His image. 



THE NEW CREATURE. 



IF ANY MAX BE IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATURE. 
2 COR. V : 17. 

The Bible plainly teaches that man is in 
a state of alienation from God; that although 
made in the image of God, he has fallen 
from his original exaltation, has forgotten 
his celestial origin and destiny, has wan- 
dered away from truth and holiness, for 
which he was made ; and has thus estranged 
himself from God, his great Creator, his 
all bountiful Benefactor, his Almighty Sover- 
eign and Ruler. The Bible, too, quite as 
plainly teaches that God wishes this alien- 
ation to cease, that man should return to 
his Heavenly Father, and again enjoy the 
divine approbation. To the attainment, how- 
ever, of so desirable an object, we are taught 



152 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

that it is necessary that a radical change 
should be wrought in man; a necessity so 
forcibly expressed in the words, "ye must 
be born again." 

The effecting this change is the one prom- 
inent result of the Gospel, as it is brought 
home to the conscience and the heart of 
man by the influences of the Holy Spirit, 
through the gospel of Christ, of which Christ 
is the sum and the substance ; so that to 
receive the Gospel is to receive Christ, to 
believe on him, to love him, to yield the 
heart and the life up to him, to belong to 
him, to trust to him alone for acceptance with 
God. He who does this, is, in the language 
of Scripture, in Christ. 

In harmony with what has been said, the 
text asserts that if any man be in Christ, 
he is a new creature. Now it is quite evident 
that this cannot mean that man is literally 
recreated, with entirely new faculties and 
powers of body, mind, and soul. It is only 
a forcible way of expressing the radical 
change wrought in man by the reception of 
the gospel. While it alters no individual- 
ity, imparts no new faculties of soul, yet so 



THE NEW CREATURE. 153 

essentially does it modify and change and 
give a new tendency to the faculties and 
powers already existing, that the change 
thus wrought can be called nothing less, 
as it were, than a new creation. 

It is often in our power to witness the 
change thus wrought in man by the gospel. 
The openly immoral man becomes moral; 
the profane man, earnest and prayerful; the 
Sabbath-breaker, a constant worshipper; the 
dishonest man, honest; the vicious man, vir- 
tuous. The gospel certainly will in all 
cases produce such effects. Still a change 
in the conduct is not of itself a convincing 
proof that the man in whom this change 
appears is, in the language of the text, a 
new creature. For, in Christian communities 
at least, the principle of self-love, or a wise 
regard to one's temporal prosperity alone, 
would or might lead to such a change of 
conduct. A man may be just and upright 
in all his dealings with his fellow men, 
strictly moral in all his outward deportment, 
and ever amiable in all the relations of 
life, and be still a stranger to the love of 
God : nay more, such a man may pride himself 
13* 



154 THE STUDENT-PREACHER; 

in his morality ; and many there are who do so, 
relying on their morality for justification, than 
which nothing is more contrary to the gospel, 
the application of which, by the Holy Spirit, 
alone makes man a new creature. 

There is an inner life of man, made up 
of thought, and motive, of impulse, de- 
sire, and affection. Here the Spirit com- 
mences its work ; and these being, as it were, 
newly created, they lead of necessity to new 
manifestations in the outward conduct and 
life; although a change of conduct, as we 
have seen, does not necessarily imply a 
change of heart. 

To exhibit some of the more marked 
changes wrought in this inner life of man 
through the application of the gospel, by the 
Holy Spirit, and the outward manifestations 
of them, is the object of this discourse. 

We shall attempt to exhibit them as they 
relate: 1. To the relative importance of heav- 
enly and earthly things : 2. To the individual's 
own estimation of himself: 3. To his views 
of his fellow men, and especially to Christ 
as the Saviour of men. 

Of course there is in respect to all these 



THE NEW CREATURE. 155 

things a wide difference in men, while unre- 
generate, owing to the ever varying circum- 
stances of birth, residence, education, and oc- 
cupation. So no two can be found who will 
think alike on all these topics. But once let 
the regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit 
act on the soul, let the great truths of the 
gospel by this agency be received into the 
mind and heart, and this difference will be 
essentially modified, and a striking uniformity 
will be found to exist between all believers. 
And first, in respect to the relative impor- 
tance of heavenly things and earthly. 

Before his conversion, this world is almost 
the sole object of man's thoughts. It has in 
his eyes a transcendent importance. Its pur- 
suits, its pleasures, its riches, its honors, seem 
to him the only things worth living for. Spir- 
itual things he thinks will do for weak minds 
only. Let others if they will, let these deluded 
Christians, deny themselves of that which the 
world most esteems, let them be self-denying 
instead of self-indulgent, let them seek spirit- 
ual joys instead of sensual pleasures ; he either 
pities them for their weakness, or sneers at 
what he calls their hypocrisy. As for him, he 



156 the student-preacher: 

wants to be rich, to have the consideration 
which wealth gives among men, to enjoy the 
luxuries it affords its possessor ; he wants the 
applause of his fellows, political distinction, 
fame. Of all these he indulges in fond dreams. 
For them he toils perseveringly, and is will- 
ing to wear himself out. 

He lives in a world of shadows. He loves 
shadows better than realities. He prefers 
trifles to solid good, the transitory to the 
eternal, the delusive pomp and- empty glitter 
of a fleeting world, to the unspeakable and 
eternal glories of heaven. Like Bunyan's man, 
he chooses to rake together from the earth 
sticks and straws, rather than look up and 
take the golden crown held out for his ac- 
ceptance by angel hands. 

But the Spirit of God has wrought upon 
him, it may be for years, it may be for a 
much shorter time, until it hath brought him 
to a full and hearty reception of the gos- 
pel. 

The scales have at last fallen from his 
eyes. The things of time and sense are 
stripped of their colossal proportions. Fic- 
tion has given place to reality. This world 



THE NEW CREATURE. 157 

is now to him but a stopping place on his 
grand march to immortality: and oh, how 
light, and trifling, and contemptible, seem 
the objects he once so fondly wished, now 
that he views them in the solemn light of 
eternity. Worldly riches are now but the 
extremest poverty in comparison with the 
treasures of heaven; worldly honors but 
" trifles light as air," now that he has caught 
a glimpse of the honor which cometh from God 
only; worldly fame, but a miserable mock- 
ery, now that he has a hope full of immor- 
tality; time but a period of preparation for 
eternity. Now, indeed, he knows and feels 
that 

"It is not all of life to live 
Nor all of death to die." 

This change in his feelings cannot be with- 
out its effect on his purposes and manner 
of life. 

He does not, indeed, withdraw himself from 
the world. Such a course he sees is in op- 
position to the plain indications of Provi- 
dence, and the dictates of sound common 
sense. The wants of his nature still force 



158 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

him to be active in business. Society still 
has claims on him, and he strives to dis- 
charge them in all good fidelity. But there 
is this essential difference in his life. In- 
stead of lowering himself to the common 
level of worldly pursuits, he seeks to elevate 
these pursuits with himself, and give to them 
a heavenward tendency. His plans are ar- 
ranged with reference to eternity. 

In his past life G-od was not in his thoughts, 
and this was the grand secret of his sinful- 
ness. Now his every aim is to please Him ; 
and therefore he useth this world as not abus- 
ing it. While he strives, in obedience to his 
Great Master, to fulfil all the duties he owes 
the world, he feels that his citizenship is in 
heaven. There are his treasures. Thence 
cometh his delight, and he looks forward 
with earnest longing to the time when, 
freed from his earthly prison-house, he shall 
enter into a full participation of the rest 
which God giveth his beloved. 

2. But if his views of the relative impor- 
tance of earthly and heavenly things are 
thus changed, how greatly is he changed in 
respect to his own estimation of himself. 



THE NEW CREATURE. 159 

Once lie was almost wholly unknown to 
himself. Of his character in the sight of God 
he had no just conception. To scrutinize his 
motives, to explore the recesses of his heart, 
to search and try his ways, were labors he 
seldom or never undertook. It is true, con- 
science rebuked him often; but its monitions 
were soon unheeded, its voice was stilled by 
the reflection that he was as good as others. 
Sometimes, indeed, it was imperative in its de- 
mands to be heard. But he would not listen 
patiently to its faithful teachings. He would 
seek to lose the remembrance of them in the 
haunts of pleasure, or by a more entire devo- 
tion to business. Did it still bear witness to 
many wrong actions, he would quiet it by 
some vague hope of God's mercy, or some 
equally vague promise of future amendment; 
and so by his continued neglect of its warn- 
ings, it ceased to trouble him, and he was left 
in ignorance of himself. And perhaps in this, 
his miserable condition, he thought he was not 
a sinner, and thanked God he was not as other 
men are. 

There have been men, it is true, of a con- 
templative bent of mind, and of keen analytical 



160 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

powers, who have made it the business of 
their lives to study themselves; and in many 
particulars they have discerned important 
truths. 

Genius, with its quick, life-giving touch, lays 
open many of the secret springs of life, and 
discovers truths, the mere mention of which 
awakens a responsive echo in every breast. 
But neither the calm scrutiny of intellect, 
nor the lightning flash of genius, can reveal 
to man his true character and condition as a 
subject of God's moral government. The light 
of Heaven alone discloses that. Science may 
tell us we have powers and faculties capable 
of infinite expansion ; that knowledge, with 
all its ample stores, is ours, if we will labor 
wisely for it; and that such a nature exalts 
us immeasurably in the scale of being. 

Genius may stir the wondrous depths of 
soul and feeling; touch, with so skillful and 
tender a hand, each delicate chord, that all 
shall be melody within us; or with quick, 
thrilling, jarring discord rouse the fiery force 
of passion; but the Spirit of God alone, 
makes us to feel and know that the heart 
of man is deceitful above all things and 



THE NEW CREATURE. 161 

desperately wicked. Man has faculties and 
powers capable of indefinite expansion; pow- 
ers of thought and feeling that can range at 
will over the whole universe of God; but 
these faculties have*been perverted, these 
powers abused, and at last he knows it. 
The conviction may have come but slow- 
ly, through years of bitter experience. For 
it is hard to break the stubborn will, to 
subdue the proud enmity of the heart. He 
has been driven from one false refuge to 
another. He has been stripped of the mis- 
erable rags of his self-righteousness, and now, 
humbled in spirit and broken-hearted, he 
cries from the depths of his soul, " God be 
merciful to me a sinner I 11 

The more he is taught by the Spirit of 
God, the clearer he understands the distinct- 
ive truths of the gospel, the more truly 
does he see the sinfulness of his past life. 
He wonders how he could have been so 
self-deceived. He mourns over his pride, 
his ingratitude, his willful disobedience. He 
sees how empty was his self-righteousness, 
how impious too ; and now, instead of de- 
manding justification through his morality, he 
14 



162 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

accepts it joyfully as the undeserved favor 
of God. 

True, all believers do not have equally 
extensive views of the. deadly nature of sin. 
The constitutions and temperaments of men 
are not alike. But this one thing is certain, 
if any man be in Christ, he views the sins 
of his past life as hateful to God, degrad- 
ing to the soul, and but for the all-abound- 
ing mercy in Christ Jesus, ruinous to its 
eternal destiny. 

With these new views of himself, come 
fervent aspirations after holiness, increasing 
piety, more earnest devotion: "Create in me 
a clean heart, and renew a right spirit with- 
in me," is his constant prayer. With these 
aspirations come efforts, by prayer, self-ex- 
amination before God, and frequent meditation 
on divine things, to be transformed into the 
image of God, to be filled with all his in- 
finite fullness. 

3. But in the third place there is a marked 
change in respect to the believer's views and 
feelings towards his fellow men. 

Before his conversion, his maxim, practically, 
if not theoretically, was, love your friends and 



THE NEW CREATURE. 163 

Late your enemies. In the struggle for rich- 
es, in the strife for honors and worldly dis- 
tinctions, he looked on many of his fellow men 
as rivals whom he must overreach, and it mat- 
tered but little what were the means of doing 
it. Nor was he concerned for the highest 
welfare of any of them. Having no regard 
for his own, how could he think of theirs. 
Perhaps he may have been what the world 
calls a philanthropist; but even in that case, 
allowing the most, he labored only for the 
temporal, but not for the eternal good of his 
fellows. And even in the most endearing re- 
lations of life, how little of a pure and holy 
spirit was there in his love ; how much of self- 
ishness even in that. 

But not only in respect to their bearing on 
himself, had he wrong views of his fellow men. 
When he looked on them as men, as mem- 
bers of society, he still viewed them in a false 
light. He looked only at that which affects 
not their moral character. He saw men of 
commanding intellect and gladly paid his hom- 
age. He beheld them successful in the attain- 
ment of wealth and honors, and hasted to do 
them reverence. He bowed to the sway of a 



164 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

great name. He admired talent, boldness, en- 
ergy; but he never stopped to inquire if this 
talent and this energy were employed in the 
service of God or of sin. 

But now he is in Christ. How changed 
his views of men. Their relations to him now 
seem to be different. Having new views of 
his own character and destiny, he looks at that 
of others in the same light. External distinc- 
tions among men are nothing. In the sight of 
a just and holy God he feels they do not ex- 
ist. All stand on the broad ground of equal- 
ity before him. All are sinners in the sight 
of Him who can not behold iniquity. None 
have any occasion for boasting. 

With an earnest, prayerful spirit, he ponders 
their condition. Great names, splendid for- 
tunes, towering intellects, lofty reputations, are 
not now the objects of his thoughts. He be- 
holds a company, vast and innumerable, of im- 
mortal beings stripped of everything save 
moral character, hastening to the grave and to 
the retributions of eternity. How his heart 
goes out in love towards them. He wants all 
men to be Christ's disciples, to know the 
peace which passeth all understanding. He 



THE NEW CREATURE. 165 

laments the folly and wretchedness of those 
who will not obey God, and earnestly desires 
their highest welfare. These desires do not 
end in idle musings, but go forth in persever- 
ing labors for their salvation. 

But there is one class which calls forth far 
different feelings. His love to Christ seeks 
expression. He yearns for sympathy. He 
cannot find it in the men of the world. 
Where does he seek for it? In the society 
of those whom he once shunned as peculiar, 
or dreaded as fanatics. Before his conversion, 
the society of Christians was not pleasant to 
him. He may have admired the consistency, 
the purity of life and heart of some Christian 
friend, and have been won by his unvarying 
gentleness to regard him with affection. But 
still he could not feel entirely at ease in his 
society; even when met by kindness and love, a 
something, and his heart often told him what 
that something was, made him prefer the so- 
ciety of those more like himself. 

Bat now he eagerly seeks the society of 
that friend; for they are one in Christ Jesus. 
My brethren, have you not the recollection 
14* 



166 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

of just such an one, still on earth, or it may 
be in heaven; and does not the remembrance 
of those first moments of such spiritual com- 
munion come over your spirits like the strains 
of heavenly music ? 

But not alone in the society of such inti- 
mate friends, does the Christian find enjoy- 
ment. In every one who loves Christ in 
sincerity and truth, whatever may be his denom- 
ination, he recognizes a brother and a friend. 
Now it is pleasant to meet with the disci- 
ples of the Lord, to hear them make mention 
of his goodness, to sympathize in their trials, 
to encourage them in the Christian life. 
They may be widely different in all save 
their feelings as Christians. But the great 
tie of a common interest brings them closely 
together, and together they strive to the 
accomplishment of every good work. 

4. But the most striking manifestations of 
this change in the inner life of man, will 
be found in the views and feelings with 
which he regards the Author of his salva- 
tion. 

To the great mass of unregenerate men 
it is ever true, that Christ is a root out of 



THE NEW CREATURE. 167 

dry ground, without form or comeliness. Their 
eyes are closed against the exceeding loveli- 
ness of his character; their hearts seem to 
be sealed against the melting influences of 
his great love. He is the object either of 
their utter indifference, or their supreme con- 
tempt. 

Or to take a more favorable case : that 
of a man who is a mere intellectual believer 
in Christ. Such an one studies the life of 
Christ, as he does that of any other histori- 
cal personage. He may, indeed, believe that 
the record of Christ in the New Testament 
is true. His education and culture may ena- 
ble him to perceive in a faint degree the 
beautiful harmony of Christ's character. He 
may perhaps see that Christ taught the pur- 
est morality the world ever saw,* that every 
step of progress the world has made since 
Christ's ascension into heaven, has been 
toward the standard of truth he unfolded 
in his doctrines and demonstrated in his 
life. But these are mere intellectual ideas ; 
they do not affect the heart, they do not 
make Christ an object of tender personal in- 
terest. But let the Spirit of God graciously 



168 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

reveal to him the truths of the gospel, so 
that he takes them into his mind and heart, 
and Christ is to him indeed the one alto- 
gether lovely. Every attribute of Christ is 
invested with new charms, when viewed either 
with reference to- the individual himself, or 
to the whole race of man. He bows in 
reverence before the miracles that he wrought, 
and the many mighty proofs he gave of his 
essential Deity. 

With what a new and soul-subduing in- 
terest he studies the record of his wonderful 
life. In what a new and beautiful light does 
the character of Christ appear to him — his 
filial obedience, his untiring zeal in doing 
good, his inexpressible kindness to all who 
approached him, his uncomplaining submission 
to the severest trials, his great forbearance 
under wrongs and insults, his humility though 
possesed of infinite wisdom, his meekness 
though he could wield almighty power. 

He is the believer's perfect example j and 
as such is admiringly studied. With what 
new force and beauty do the instructions of 
the Saviour fall on the believer's ears. What 
a conscious dignity there is in all he says ; what 



THE NEW CREATURE. 169 

a depth of meaning, and yet how plainly is 
truth presented, and how joyfully is it received 
into the believer's heart. He is the Chris- 
tian's Great Teacher, and the source of all 
truth. 

But it is not as the Perfect Example, not 
as the Great Teacher which most changes his 
views and feelings of Christ: but that which 
most clearly makes known the radical change 
wrought in the man by the gospel, is the 
preciousness of Christ as an atoning sacri- 
fice. 

He has often heard the story of Calvary 
before ; has perhaps been familiar with it 
from his childhood. It may have sometimes 
awakened within him feelings of a vague com- 
passion or a morbid sympathy, but no deep 
and genuine emotion. 

Now it excites the deepest and strongest 
emotions of his nature. As he turns his 
thoughts to the closing scenes of that stu- 
pendous event ; to Gethsemane, with its terri- 
ble burden of suffering and woe ; to that 
hour when the mortal tenement seems too 
frail to support the protracted struggle, and 
an angel appears from heaven to strengthen 



170 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

it; to the hour when, breaking the stillness 
of midnight, that cry ascends to heaven, My 
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me, nevertheless not my will but thine 
be done ; to the last great act of that 
mighty drama, when amid the darkness and 
the throes of nature, and the still deeper dark- 
ness of his soul, the voice of the sufferer is 
heard, My God ! my God ! why hast thou 
forsaken me! when he cries out, It is fin- 
ished! bows his head, and gives up the ghost; 
0, who shall describe the love, the gratitude, 
the admiration, which fills the heart of the 
believer in view of such scenes as these ! 

What new views do they give him of the 
awful nature of sin, that demanded such an 
expiation. 

He mourned his sins in view of the holi- 
ness and purity of God, and his continued 
loving kindness and mercy. But with what 
an increased weight of anguish do they now 
fill his soul, as he sees the Son of God, the 
brightness of his Father's glory, thus set forth 
a martyr, a sacrifice, enduring unspeakable 
agonies, and yielding up his life for the sin- 
ner. 



THE NEW CREATURE. 171 

Herein, says the Apostle, is love; not that 
we loved God, but that God loved us, and 
sent his Son to. be a propitiation for our 
sins. Herein, responds the Christian, is love . 
love unspeakable, and full of glory. Once the 
cross was an object of his deepest aversion. 
Now it is the only hope ; and the abiding sen- 
timent of his heart is, " God forbid that I 
should glory save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified 
unto me and I unto the world." 

The love of Christ is now the constraining 
principle of his life. For, " to live is Christ." 
All that he has, and all that he is, is thence- 
forth devoted to his Kedeemer. He gives 
himself a living sacrifice, and thinks it nothing 
more than his " reasonable service." 

How great is the change thus produced by 
the reception of the gospel. Is it not indeed 
" a change from darkness into marvellous 
light." 

To behold a man, once living a life of 
practical emnity to God, disobeying His just 
commands, regardless of His approbation or his 
frowns, unmindful of his own high destiny, 
debasing the exalted faculties of his soul to 



172 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

the petty and miserable things of earth, cast- 
ing contempt on the adorable and only re- 
deemer of man, now changed, now sitting at 
the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right 
mind; now glorying in that which he once 
despised; now seeking in all humility and 
faithfulness to please Him he had never ceased 
to offend j now speaking a new language, wear- 
ing the robes of righteousness and the garments 
of salvation, and looking with a trustful spirit 
beyond the grave to the bright prospect of 
eternal bliss; is all this anything less than a 
new creation? 

To those who are strangers to it, it is in- 
deed inexplicable ; to those who experience it, 
the immediate gift of God. 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 



FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IX 
CUEIST JESUS. — EPH. II : 10. 

The great theme of the Apostle in the chap- 
ter from which the text is taken, is the rich 
manifestation of God's mercy in Christ Jesus 
to the saints at Ephesus. To impress this 
upon them, and thus to call forth their grate- 
ful love and obedience, he reminds them of 
the depths of that moral degradation from 
which by the quickening power of the Spirit, 
they had been raised unto heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus. And lest they should in aught 
fail to ascribe the praise of this their salva- 
tion unto God, by thinking that they had 
performed some meritorious part of the work, 
he most explicitly and repeatedly declares 
that it is purely a work of grace. Their 
salvation is in nothing owing to themselves, 
15 



174 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

to any peculiar excellence in them, or any 
act of merit which they had done, but solely 
to that great " love wherewith God had loved 
them." " For/' says he, " by grace are ye 
saved, through faith and that not of your- 
selves ; it is the gift of God, not of works, 
lest any man should boast." True, the es- 
sential requisite or condition of their salva- 
tion is faith. But since every work, and 
consequently merit is excluded, faith itself is 
denied mefitoriousness ; so that it is neither 
on the performance of this condition, nor 
any other, that we can say our own arm hath 
saved us. We must acknowledge ourselves the 
undeserving recipients of sovereign mercy, and 
lift our souls in adoring gratitude to Him 
u who worketh in us both to will and to do 
of his good pleasure." 

It is in confirmation of this view, that the 
apostle introduces the words of the text. 
They present the reason why salvation is not 
of works, but of grace. "For we are his 
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
good works." 

Now, we think it evident from this connec- 
tion, that in the mind of the Apostle this 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 175 

quickening together with. Christ, of whic% he 
had spoken, this deliverance of the Ephesians 
from the thraldom of evil, this new life im- 
parted to those once dead in trespasses and 
sins, constituted essentially their salvation. 
In this view only do we see how the text 
confirms what precedes. It is as though the 
apostle had said, "You are saved by grace, 
because by grace you are regenerated. It is 
not your good works that save you, because 
these result from the renewing of your hearts 
and minds, afld that is the work of God. 
You do not save yourselves, because you do 
not regenerate yourselves. It is God that 
saves you, because it is God that regenerates 
you." 

In this unfolding of the Apostle's argument, 
we have presented to us an idea of salvation, 
which is in strict accordance with the uniform 
teaching of Scripture, and which we ought to 
bear carefully in mind. As herein represent- 
ed, salvation consists essentially in regenera- 
tion. It is not a mere judicial act of God, 
by which the external condition of the sinner 
is arbitrarily changed. It is not merely a 
work done out of us, it is a work done in 



176 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

us. f We are saved from the punishment of sin, 
by being saved from its dominion. 

Of course, we do not abate one jot or 
tittle of the necessity of the Saviour's atone- 
ment in its relations to God. We seem to 
perceive in some particulars in what that ne- 
cessity consisted. In others we may not be. 
able clearly to define it. For the finite mind 
cannot grasp the movements of the Infinite 
mind. 

In its relations to ourselves, we feel less 
of difficulty, because they seegn to us more 
fully revealed, and the effects of that stupen- 
dous fact on man, lie clearly within the range 
of our own observation and experience j and 
some of them will be noticed in the progress 
of this discourse. 

But while assured of the necessity of Christ's 
atonement, we are as strongly assured by the 
word of God, that our salvation, which by 
that atonement is begun out of us, must be 
completed in us ; that our characters must be 
radically transformed ; that our hearts must be 
changed from the love of sin unto the love 
of God; that we must be renewed in the 
spirit and temper of our minds ; that we must 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 177 

put off the old man, which, is corrupt, 
according to the deceitful lusts ; and put on 
the new man, which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness ; in other 
words, that regeneration, a new birth, is the 
only mode of man's entrance into the king- 
dom of God, the only means by which he 
may avail himself of the efficacy of Christ's 
atonement. 

The text declares the power by which re- 
generation is effected. " For we are his work- 
manship," that is, the workmanship of God. 
In one sense, it is true, this language may be 
used of all men. For we are all God's off- 
spring. We are all the work of his hands, for 
He has made us, and not we ourselves. But 
the context clearly shows, that in its present 
use it is applicable only to Christians. They 
are the workmanship of God, in that He is 
the author of their regeneration, of their new 
spiritual creation. He is the mighty builder, 
who, from the ruins into which sin had thrown 
the soul, has raised it a glorious temple in 
which his Holy Spirit deigns to dwell. He 
it is, who, into the soul darkened by igno- 
rance and error, has poured a flood of mar- 
15* 



178 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

vellous light; he it is, who has caused those 
once dead in trespasses and sins to rise to a 
higher aad nobler life than that of the body; 
who has brought into subjection their base 
and unholy passions; who has caused to ger- 
minate and nourish in the once barren desert 
of their hearts, the heavenly plants of " love, 
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, faith." And in accordance with the con- 
text of our subject, it is to be remarked, that 
our regeneration is purely a work of grace : 
grace the most pure and unmixed, the fruit of 
G-od's sovereign will. " Of his own will be- 
gat he us," says the Apostle James. " Of his 
own will;" for though the nature of God's 
agency cannot but be consonant with his charac- 
ter, though the fruit of His Spirit cannot but 
be most pure and holy, yet he was under no 
necessity to interpose at all. " Of his own 
will;" as opposed not only to any necessity of 
nature in Him, but to any claim of merit 
in us. No previous worthiness of ours, no at- 
tractive excellence in us, no act of merit 
which we have done, caused Him to exert his 
power in our renovation. No, " not by works 
of righteousness which we have done, but ac- 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 179 

cording to His mercy He saved us, by the 
washing of regeneration and the renewing of 
the Holy Ghost." 

We may not understand in just what man- 
ner the Spirit of God acts on the soul of 
man ; but surely he who created the soul can 
act on it in whatever way He sees fit. And 
when we consider the deep seated alienation 
of the heart from God ; the strength of its 
unholy passions, and the ever increasing power 
of sinful habits, we feel a conviction amounting 
to certainty, that He who created the heart 
alone can change it. It is a mysterious influ- 
ence, that of the Spirit in regeneration. " Like 
the wind which bloweth where it listeth, and 
ye. hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence 
it cometh or whither it goeth." So the divine 
spirit ruleth with a free omnipotence. You 
experience its workings in the soul, but its 
beginning, and the limit of its operation, lie 
hidden in darkness far from human sight. 
Man becomes spiritually renewed, by a process 
as silent and invisible, by an influence as various 
and unrestrained in its operations, yet as cer- 
tainly known in its effects, as the force and 
direction of the wind, and perceived by the 



180 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

displays of its power. Yet mysterious as 
this influence may be, and how much soever it 
may baffle the power of human comprehen- 
sion, yet, when we behold a man changed from 
sin to holiness, from a life of practical enmity 
to his Maker, to one of grateful love and 
obedience, in such a man we recognize in 
its most exalted sense, the workmanship of 
God. 

But the second clause of the text, marks 
somewhat more particularly in what this work- 
manship of God consists. Christians are the 
workmanship of God, in that by the trans- 
forming power of the Spirit they have been 
created anew in Christ Jesus. 

There is contained in this expression a 
reference both to the ground or occasion, and 
the result of regeneration. The ground or 
occasion of God's exercising the renewing 
power of his Spirit in the soul of man, is 
the expiatory work of Christ. By virtue of 
Christ's infinite condescension in assuming hu- 
man nature, of that unvarying faithfulness 
with which He acted out all the precepts of 
the broken and dishonored laws ; by His vol- 
untary submission to its severest penalties, 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 181 

and His atoning death on the cross, there is, 
as it were a channel of communication opened 
up from earth to heaven, through which the 
Holy Spirit, source of all spiritual light and 
life, may flow down into these hard and stub- 
born hearts, whereby those hearts shall be 
changed from the love of sin unto the love 
of holiness, and thus " through Christ we who 
were once alienated from God have access 
by one Spirit unto the Father." 

But the grand result of this recreating in- 
fluence of the Spirit, which through the expia- 
tory work of Christ is exercised on man, is 
that it brings him to repose faith in Christ, 
that is to receive Christ in all the characters 
and offices with which he is invested; to believe 
all that He has taught, concerning the char- 
acter of God; the principles on which the 
administration of his moral good pro- 
ceeds, His designs of love and mercy 
to His earthly children, the relations which 
he sustains to his Creator and his fellow men, 
his condition as a sinner, his need of a Re- 
deemer, the gracious provision of just such 
a Eedeemer as his necessities require; and 
thus especially to receive Christ as his al- 



182 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

mighty deliverer from the dominion and curse 
of sin ; to give himself wholly over to Christ's 
guardianship ; that is, to rest all his hopes 
of salvation on Christ. The man who has 
been enabled to do all this, has been cre- 
ated anew in Christ Jesus. And this is in 
accordance with another declaration of the 
same Apostle, that if any man be in Christ 
Jesus he is a new creature, or a new creation. 

We have thus given a general view of the 
new creation in Christ Jesus. We have said 
that it is effected by the omnipotent energy of 
the Holy Spirit acting on the conscience and 
heart of man in consequence of the expiatory 
work of Christ, and that the one great result 
of all this on man is that he is brought to a 
joyful and unreserved acceptance of Christ as 
the only Saviour of men. But still fixing 
our attention on the idea of a new creation, 
and for the purpose of illustrating what has 
already been advanced, we may put it into 
another form: viz. Faith in Christ is the 
prominent characteristic of the regenerate 
man. 

Now we are assured by our own observation 
and experience, that to the great mass of un- 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 183 

regenerate men, Christ is a root out of dry 
ground, without form or comeliness. Their eyes 
seem to be closed against the exceeding love- 
liness of His character, their hearts seem to 
be sealed against the melting influence of His 
great love. He is the object either of their 
utter indifference or their supreme contempt. 
Or to take a more favorable case, that of 
those who are merely intellectual believers 
in Christ. They study the life of Christ as 
they do that of any other historical personage. 
They indeed believe that the record of Christ 
in the New Testament is true ; that He did 
the deeds therein recorded of Him. Their 
education and culture may enable them to per- 
ceive, and eloquently to discourse upon, the 
beautiful harmony of Christ's character. They 
may perceive that He taught the purest mor- 
ality the world ever saw, that every step of 
true progress the world has made since Christ's 
ascension into heaven, has been towards the 
standard of truth which He employed in His 
doctrines and illustrated in His life, and is 
yet at an inconceivable distance below it. 
But these are merely intellectual ideas, they 
do not affect the heart, they do not make 



184 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

Christ an object of tender personal interest 
to the believer. All this is far short of the 
New Testament idea of faith in Christ, of 
union with Him, of the repose of the soul's 
eternal interests upon Him. 

But let the Spirit of God graciously open 
the heart of man to receive the gospel in all 
its fullness, and Christ becomes unto him 
indeed, the " chiefest among ten thousand, and 
the one altogether lovely." Every attribute of 
Christ is invested with new charms, whether 
viewed in reference to himself or the whole 
race of man. He bows in reverence before 
the miracles that he wrought, and the many 
mighty proofs He gave of His essential Deity. 
With what a new and soul-subduing interest 
he reads the record of that wonderful life, 
which beginning in the lonely manger of Beth- 
lehem, was brought to its sublimely awful ter- 
mination on Calvary's Cross. 

In what a new and beautiful light, the 
character of Christ now appears to him; His 
filial obedience ; His untiring zeal in doing- 
good; His inexpressible tenderness towards all 
who approached him, his uncomplaining sub- 
mission to the severest trials ; His great for- 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 185 

bearance under wrongs and insults ; His humil- 
ity, though possessed of infinite wisdom j His 
meekness, though he could wield almighty 
power. The regenerate man receives Christ 
as his Perfect Example, and in reliance on 
Divine aid strives to follow it. 

With what new force and beauty do the 
instructions of the Saviour now fall on the 
believer's ear. What a conscious dignity there 
is in all he says ; what depth of meaning, and 
yet how simply and how plainly is the truth pre- 
sented by him who spake as never man spake ; 
and how joyfully received into the regenerated 
heart. The regenerate man receives Christ 
as the Great Teacher, the source of all re- 
ligious truth. 

But the reception of Christ in these charac- 
ters alone, does by no means constitute that 
faith in Christ, which is the prominent charac- 
teristic of the regenerate man. It is not as 
the Perfect Example, not as the Great Teacher, 
that makes Christ an object of the most ten- 
der personal interest, but always and preemi- 
nently as an Atoning Sacrifice, as " Him cruci- 
fied," as Him who loved us and gave Himself 
for us, as the Lamb of God who taketh away 
16 



186 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

the sins of the world. And it is the recep- 
tion of Christ in this character which most 
significantly marks the radical change, which by 
the Spirit has been wrought in the believer's 
heart. 

In his unregenerate state, the doctrine of 
Christ crucified, was to him foolishness. 
Every objection which reason could invent 
was urged against it, but all his objections 
originated in the deep seated hostility of his 
heart to the humbling truths involved in it. 
It taught him that he was a sinner against 
God, and by his own voluntary transgression 
had forfeited the favor of heaven. It taught 
him that in and of himself his condition 
was one of irretrievable ruin; that he could 
not merit salvation : it demanded that he 
should renounce every claim to the approba- 
tion of God; that he should cast aside his 
pride, his self-righteousness, and in meek sub- 
mission accept of salvation as a gratuitous 
gift. To all this we know the natural man 
is averse. 

But the regenerate man has been brought 
to see in its true light his lost condition 
as a sinner, and in the profound conviction 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 187 

of his own un worthiness and helplessness, in 
true repentence for his sins, and in earnest 
longings to be freed from them, has submit- 
ted himself unto the righteousness of God 
in Christ. He has been brought to see how 
empty was his self-righteousness, how impious 
too ; and renouncing every claim to salvation 
he throws himself cheerfully on the free 
mercy of God in Christ Jesus; and when 
by the eye of faith he turns to the closing 
scenes of the Saviour's life, to Gethsemane, 
with its terrible burden of suffering and of 
woe, to that fearful hour, when amid the 
darkness and throes of nature, the majestic 
Son of God gives up his life a ransom for 
sinners ; it is then that all the best emo- 
tions of his nature are stirred to its in- 
most depths j it is then that he receives 
Christ with his whole heart, as his personal 
Saviour, and in view of that unparalleled 
demonstration of divine love, the- fervent ex- 
clamation of his soul is, " God forbid that 
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
unto me and I unto the world." 

How great is the change which has thus 



188 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

been wrought in man, in bringing him to a 
hearty and unreserved surrender of himself to 
Christ, and thus transferring himself out of 
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom 
of God's dear Son. This change involves, 
on the part of him in whom it has been 
effected, entirely new views of himself, of 
his fellow men, of the relative importance 
of heavenly and earthly things, brings him 
into the new and endearing relation of a 
child of God and an heir of heaven. Old 
things have passed away, behold all things 
have become new. Does not all this verify 
the doctrine of the text, that faith in Christ 
is the result of regeneration, and that they 
who are thus in Christ are the workmanship 
of God, in that by the gracious energy of 
his Spirit they have been newly created ? 

"We have said that faith in Christ is the 
result of regeneration. We are thus fur- 
nished with a test by which we may try 
our own religious condition and state, by 
which we may determine for ourselves, whether 
there has indeed passed on us that renova- 
ting change, which the Scriptures assert to be 



REGENERATION THROUGH CHRIST. 189 

an indispensable preparation for the kingdom 
of God. 

The text is a simple one : one level to the 
understanding of any rational creature. The 
question is not what were your feelings at 
some particular moment of your past life ; 
you are not called on to give an intelligible 
explanation of the various steps by which, as 
you trust, you have been brought into the 
kingdom of God. You are not required to 
give your assent to all the dogmas of some 
theological system. The question has nothing 
to do with the uninspired teachings of men. 
It is not, Do you believe in Augustine, or 
Calvin, or Edwards ? It is simply, " Do you 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ ? " Do 
you sincerely, and with a whole heart, accept 
of Him as your all-sufficient Saviour, and 
with a firm unwavering trust, and in the 
joyful assurance of safety, commit all the in- 
terests of your undying soul to Him " who 
was delivered for our offences, and raised 
again for our justification." 

If you say, if you can truly say, " Lord, I 
believe, help thou my unbelief," then you 
have the witness within you, that you have 



190 THE STUDENT-PREACHER. 

been born from above, and are a true child 
of God. This is the proof of your regen- 
eration, that you have faith in Christ. And 
this is confirmed by the declaration of Saint 
John, that "whosoever believeth that Jesus 
is the Christ, is born of God," and u God 
dwelleth in him, and he in God." 

If we have thus received Jesus Christ, so 
let us walk in him, rooted and grounded, 
and built up in him, and established in the 
faith, " till we all come, in the unity of the 
faith, and the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto the perfect man, into the measure 
of the stature of the fullness of Christ." 



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